Kern

Story of the Siege Enders: Part 2

At the end of the last session we had just stopped the first wave of manticores sieging Avgard with the help of our shadow dragon mounts. In the distance more manticores and lizard folk can be seen moving towards us

-We take a moment to regroup and realign ourselves against Avgard’s outer wall with the archers up top. As the manticores get closer it appears that some have multiple riders. There are 4 manticores, two of which have 4 passengers each. Brekahn and Salemar focus one of the manticores carrying 4 lizard folk, but are both stuck with manticore spines. The single rider manticores continue to fire bolts of acid, one fires a splash of colorful rays at Geoffrei blinding him.

-A loud hissing sound can be heard from the forest as a block humanoid shape with a large blade emerges from the surrounding forest. The manticores with 4 rides move towards the top of the wall tossing weapons at the archer’s, killing one. Geoffrei pulls one rider off him mount and he suffers a painful death smashed on the ground. The black humanoid spirit reaches out towards The Doctor, he becomes smoky and incorporeal as he looses vision of everyone except the specter.

-The battle weighs a heavy toll on our mounts. Salemar’s sustains heavy damage from the spears and it dissipates, he floats down to the ground in the center of a group of lizard folk. What is now a thick shower of javelins fly at Geoffrei but he sustains very little damage. In the distance more manticores and platoons can be seen approaching. After defying all the attempts of the lizard folk, Geoffrei remains strong mocking the army’s attempts. They instead focus their efforts on his dragon, which dissipates leaving him surrounded by a plethora of enemies. But yet again he denies them purchase as he leaps over them all, easily clearing the distance from the trees towards the wall. The ground forces hang back at the tree line attacking Geoffrei at the base of the wall until he blasts up it and onto The Doctor’s mount.

-The archers have now retreated behind the wall after receiving orders to withdraw and defend the inner city. We all regroup at the top of the battlements, with only a few surviving mounts a few of us have to share. Above the trees more manticores approach…

Story of the Siege Enders: Part 1

At the end of the last session we had just finished dispatching a small platoon of lizard folk on the way to the font outside of Avgard. Once we arrived there, we summoned some shadow dragons which would hopefully enable us to stall the dragon army long enough for the people of Avgard to escape.

-Whatever presence that had been unleashed at the font and alerted the surrounding forces had faded from concluding the ritual.. We mount the dragons and hover just above the trees, we can see the archers stationed at Avgard lined up on the battlements. Looking around we also notice some areas that have been cleared of trees to towards the West; specks of red light coming from what we can only assume is campfires and judging from the number, it appears to be quite a large force. Gliding along, we decide to head to the nearest campfire, we see a number of lizard folk sitting around a fire, they seem fairly relaxed. We decide to jump them even though we judge at this distance the archers will be unable to assist us.

-Brekahn leads the charge against 6 lizard folk, all of whom appear to be grunts (no leader). She and Salemar charge one of the lizard folk and bloody him off the hop. Geoffrei follows after and cleaves the guy in half. The Doctor charges a new target, his dragon takes a bite out of a different enemy. Searos follows the rear and unleashes and flurry of daggers at the remaining 5 reptiles. We slay 2 more, one heavily wounded lizard folk takes off yelling for help. We manage to finish all of them, but there is a definite stirring around us.

-We take flight once more among the trees. Off to the North-West some shapes with bat like wings whip quickly in our direction. We move towards a clearing hoping to draw them into the range of the archers, we line ourselves at the tree line next near Avgard. The shapes fan out before converging towards us for a 3 pronged attack. As they approach we can see that they are more lizard folk, except they are riding what appears to be lions with bat wings and spiked tails, called manticores. In addition, the riders seem to be covered with a reflective liquid as they carry a rod attached to the manticore’s neck.

-They surge forward simultaneously, the manticores retaliate our attacks with a whip of it’s spiked tail while the riders launch globules of green acid. A volley of arrows rain down at the manticores from our archer allies. We slay one of the manticores, causing it’s rider to plummet to his doom. The sound of horns grows louder and there are trashing sounds through the forest as a series of spears fly at us. The number of spears thrown in our direction continue to increase as torches amass in the background. Four more manicore shapes take flight in the distance, larger numbers mobilizing towards us. Even some larger figures wearing feathered headdresses can be seen among the regular lizard folk.

Shadow Dragons GET!

At the end of last session we had just stolen a magical blue box from the Avgard mage’s guild and traded Marek a decoy version of the box in exchange for a scroll which would allow us to better protect Avgard from the approaching dragon siege. The ritual can be empowered with the use of a font located just outside Avgard.

- We leave Avgard at the North-Eastern side of town heading towards the location Marek described to us. Geoffrei hears scraping sounds and tremors to the south, which we decide to follow but we’re unable to find anything as the sound seems to stop when stop to listen for it. Soon after Geoffrei notices a vague silhouette of a lizard folk as an explosion of colors blasts out at him from our surroundings. The skin of the lizard folk appear to meld with the backdrop of the forest similar to a chameleon.

-They pull out bronze daggers dripping with a liquid which sizzles as it drips on the ground. A lizard fold channeller appears and begins to mumble as the ground starts to shift and shake. A second set of rumbling explodes from the ground as another channeller emerges from behind some bushes. Striking at the dagger wielding reptiles cause them to vanish into the surroundings. The last lizard folk burrows away underground and does not reappear.

-Searos signals to the archers stationed at the Avgard battlements as Geoffrei sprints to catch The Doctor’s horse who fled after being wounded in combat. The archers shoot an arrow in our direction with a letter attached to it, the message tells us that they’re continuing the evacuation. We rest for a moment then continue quickly towards the font.

-Doctor leads on through the trees in the dark until we eventually come upon a clearing where some trees had been felled. This appears to match the location that Marek described to us, so we dismount and approach a pile of rocks in the middle of the clearing. We scan the perimeter and set up some sunrods behind some trees as we investigate the pile. They pile has a nauseating feel to it, even with the sunrods set up there is no light penetrating through the rocks. Scord determines the ritual is a modified version of a shadow steed ritual, and that a certain amount of life force would need to be sacrificed in order to complete the ritual.

-The Doctor begins the ritual, with Geoffrei willingly contributing his vitality to the ritual and Salemar praying to Bahamut for assistance, as he does this the right side of Salemar’s face begins to heat up and the darkened scales begin to crispin. Tendrils leak out from the stones as they turn black, they reach out towards Geoffrei but he is able to endure their touch. The sapphire cube releases a mist which diffuses some of the black energy.

-Flapping of wings can be heard from the surroundings as a cloud builds up above the clearing, 5 dragons coalesce and swoop down from the smoke. The rocks of the font fade dramatically as they appear to be depleted. The Doctor senses that the mounts will expire within 24 hours. We rise upon the dragons and take off, fearing the ritual may have drawn the attention of our enemies.

Grand Theft Box

At the end of the last session we had found Chiswik and the head mistress in the port and had just been ambushed by a beholder. Killing the beholder opened up a teleportation circle returning us back to the mages academy.

-We quickly grab Chiswik and the head mistress and move through the teleportation circle. On the other side we find ourselves in an identical square shaped room. The Doctor checks on the two mages; they both still seem to be in rough shape, although they no longer appear to be struggling with any mental presence.

-Shortly after the head mistress regain consciousness, she is disoriented, we take a moment to explain what happened. Meanwhile spell sword guards file out through an open door. Among them is the guard who first escorted us through the academy premises, he congratulates us for rescuing the arch mage and agrees to bring us to retrieve a package left for us.

-The spell swords summon a floating disk and place Chiswik on it. Meanwhile the guard leads us to the center of the guild where an aid fetches a crate with a rune on it. Touching the rune exposes a list of names belonging to members of the party.

-The crate is nailed together, opening it we find a bag of holding, a sheet of paper with a ‘P’ on it, and also a necklace. The necklace appears to be the third piece of the relics we had been missing. Searos’s cloak and Scord’s necklace are drawn towards it.

-But first Geoffrei reads the note: “Hey guys, sorry for not giving you this. Wasn’t the right time. Hope it’s useful. -P”. Scord heats the paper on a hunch that there may be something else to the note. But she does not find anything out of the ordinary.

-Now that we have rescued the Arch mage, we make plans to visit his chambers to investigate the whereabouts of the mysterious box Marek was interested in. A guide leads us to the living quarters over to a chamber with spell guards on either side of the door.

-We convince the guards to allow us to enter in order to examine the arch mage’s condition. The room is fairly large, many bookcases, a large desk and on a bed in the corner is Chiswik lying there with clerics and mages surrounding him.

-The archmage hasn’t regained consciousness yet, and there is no sign of any box. We decide to leave and go ask the head mistress if she would know anything about the box. Meanwhile Brekahn leaves the room and readies a disguise to infiltrate the guild in search for the box.

-The head mistress tells us about a box, but she doesn’t know what it contains as there were strong powers that prevented any divination. She explains that on one occasion someone tried to take the box. At our request, she agrees to have an assistant create a decoy box for us.

-We head out to a store near the arcane university, when Brekahn reappears with the blue box and hands it over to The Doctor. In the shop, the merchant offers to convert our extra magical items into residual. We break down a few items, then wander around town towards the blacksmith and sell some mundane items (daggers, etc…).

-Next we head over to the inn to get some rest for the night, Searos leaves the inn at night to meet someone about the location of his grandfather. In the morning there are screams and panic as the inn is on fire! The fire appears to be originating from Scord’s room, where she is nowhere to be seen. On the wall there is a symbol representing one of the devil’s of the nine hells.

-The Doctor fetches his horse from the stables next to the inn and notifies some of the cleric who pray to contain the unholy fire and prevent it from spreading. They succeed, but the inn lies in ashes leaving the owner devastated.

-We head over to the head mistress’ office where there is an apprentice concentrating. She is extremely upset as she offers us the duplicate box, explaining an imposter made off with the real box disguised as the head mistress herself.

-Suddenly all three relics pull themselves together merging into a disk. Glowing a golden hue
they split into three different wedges. The head mistress is very confused at this, we take some time to explain some of what is going on. The Doctor says he had a feeling drawing him South-West when the relics joined.

-On the way to the church of Neratha to rendezvous with Merrick. We stop to perform the cure disease ritual who had been suffering from a sickness contracted in our time in the portal. We enter the temple afterwards but don’t see Marek until we enter the courtyard where we meet Marek with the same two guards he has with him earlier as ambassador Jerikar. He explains how the guild master had stole the box from a mage in a rival college, and the power of the box was not important to him only the emotions it had brought out between the two colleges.

-Marek pulls out a scroll and explains how it can be used to create shadowy mounts we can ride and repel the dragon legion’s siege. The ritual requires us to leave town a little ways and access a magical font in order to lengthen the effects of the spell.

-We conclude our business with Marek then head to the commander to inform him of our plans. On the battlements we find a grizzled man, and ask that he position forces at the north eastern section of the wall to cover us as we use the ritual to stall the army as the townspeople retreat to the south. The commander agrees and would have the mages send a flare when the town has finished evacuating.

Battling a Beholder

At the end of the last session we found ourselves wondering around a strange world after entering a portal at the Avgard mage’s guild. Searos and The Doctor had been separated from the group shortly upon entering. During our search for the mage’s headmaster Chiswick we now approach a fork in the road, coming from of the paths is the sound of foot steps which belong to Searos and The Doctor as they turn the corner.

-We finally meet back together after being separated in the portal. Moving back to the fork, the pathway shifts different colors one for each path. We head down the path colored purple, feeling a slight chill. 50 feet down red and purple patterns appear, and we eventually see a large stone doorway at the end of the path. The strange murmuring sound around us increases. Geoffrei hears sounds of dripping on the other side of the door. On the other side we find a small chamber stretched out. The source of the dripping is coming from a body floating and bobbing against the ceiling. A section of the wall is disjointed with a handle on it.

-Brekahn manages to catch the corpse with a rope and pulls it towards us. Upon examination we find it appears to have multiple claw marks and lesions long festered. After Searos takes a belt inscribed with runes from the body we continue to move through the room. The floor in this room seems to give in when stepped requiring more effort then normal the traverse the chamber. In the room we find an offset door which opens into a hallway that tapers off into a larger room. The hallways suddenly becomes shadowy, there is a growing mist carrying a thick unpleasant odor with it and a sense of dread emanating from the room at the end of the hallway.

-Moving closer to the room at the end of the hall it is shaped like a large square. Crying can be heard in the back of the room coming from a woman crouched over a body wearing fine robes. Along the back wall there are two reverberating columns emitting an aura of dread as they flicker red. There is a cloud of thicker smoke covering up a runic circle. The murmuring sound that had continued up to this point begins to fade.

-The female shakes her head repeating “All is lost… All is lost…”. We recognize her a the mage’s guild headmistress and the body on the floor looks like Chiswick, the guild Arch mage. His eyes are blank as if he is battling some presence within his mind. Chiswik screams and his arms slump down. The Doctor prepares the reagents necessary for a cleanse disease ritual believing that it will help revive him. Using the sapphire cube, which creates a mist around Chiswik and The Doctor, Geoffrei and Scord are surrounded in mist as they assist with the ritual.

-Suddenly the murmuring starts up again, The Doctor must increase the volume of her prayers. The ritual is finally completed as Chiswik’s breathing slows to a normal rate, the ritual appears to have taken a lot of energy on his part, he now lies in a magic induced sleep.

-The entrance of the room suddenly shrinks to the size of a keyhole, floating through the wall is a beholder! The columns burst flair with a burst of energy causing the head mistress to collapse in terror. The beholder speaks something incomprehensible and the floor expands and tears, opening up rifts on the ground. Eye stalks lash out, a different ray striking each member of the party.

-Moving around the rifts we manage to fell the beholder. The runic circle that was once shrouded in mist reveals a teleportation circle.

Avgard Refugee Fever

At the end of the last session we had just got derailed on our way to Avgard by a strange possessed man. He led us to a clearing with a white light in the center. Other figures appeared all gathering around the clearing. Salemar had just struck the ground underneath one of the possessed which seemed to connect with something.

-Another human standing near where the ground was first stabbed begins to tremble violently in place. Salemar moves next to him and similarly stabs the ground but doesn’t feel anything. Standing next to the man Salemar notices his skin is pale and transparent also his eyes are completely white. The man on the ground who was first attacked stops seizing and crumbles.

-Geoffrei approaches the white light and as he gets closer he feels a faint vaccum sensation drawing him closer. Suddenly there is a sound of tearing and bursting into range is a wispy humanoid shape with smoke wings. Scord follows Geoffrei moves into the clearing, examining the strange human-elemental shape. She determines it is a variety of air elemental which cannot fly but possess the ability to launch themselves into the air temporarily. In addition, they are capable of creating violent whirlwinds and are resistant to cold.

-Geoffrei detects some movement from the other side of the clearing. A bolt of water and ice flies towards him, originating from a new humanoid shape. The projectile appears to have been a piece of the attacker that he tore off and launched. More tearing sounds are heard through the forest and three swirling clouds of darkened air move into the clearing. Figures within the maelstroms raise their hands towards Geoffrei and Scord as tight pressure is felt inside their heads. Two other wind human shapes appear as we begin combat. The air hisses as we strike out towards them.

-One of the elementals moves near the center of the clearing and begins to move more fluently through the winds that are gathering there. Brekahn feels the ground tremble as a stony humanoid figure charges at her, it appears to be an elf but with skin made of stone. Salemar hears more thudding coming from the north of the clearing.

-Winds in the center of the clearing begin to pick up, even Geoffrei is having a hard time keeping himself from being tossed up into the air. Meanwhile the elementals are jettisoned by the winds and launched towards us. Two more stone elementals appear around Salemar. Striking the rock elemental causes them to explode with a shower of clay and some of the mud sticking to all who are caught in the burst.

-As the last elemental dies the wind dies down in the center. The light is less thick now and there is a bright blue mist. Geoffrei swings his halberd at the mist and a large blue gem fragments off. Examining the fragment, it doesn’t hold any residual power from what was earlier conjuring strong winds, it appears to be a piece of sapphire. Reaching inside the mist feels cool, a larger cut sapphire is found and now in The Doctor’s possession.

-Geoffrei tries to see if he can detect the signal we told Kilan to give if there was danger, but there is no signal. We head back towards the camp, all the civilians are there and Kilan is crouched behind a bush and steps out when he sees us return. He report that it had been quiet, and we explain how we failed to find the source of the beating wings. We sleep at camp for the night and it passes by uneventfully. At morning Scord sets up an object reading ritual for the recovered sapphire.

-A clear fog is suspended above the gem during the ritual. The blank gray fog takes the shape of a hooded face poised over the sapphire, the hood is moved back and reveals Merrik’s face. Next, we attempt to divine the sapphires purpose; we see a large number of figures who all appear to be sick, a blue square in their midst they convulse and stony and water creatures appear in their place. Next we investigate how it got there; an image of the clearing a shadow passes overhead, it appears to be a horse/eagle with a rider who places the gem on the ground an murmurs some words. The Doctor identifies this creature as a hippogriff. Next is how it was created; a long stone table with arcane implements and runes. A small pile of gemstones are on one side of the table. The sapphire is placed in the center and leylines appear as the sapphire is infused with energies. Finally how to destroy it: and image of a halberd is displayed in the mist.

Bantin: Fallen, Never to Return?

At the end of the last session we had just about finished escorting a group of refugees to Avgard when we were ambushed by a group posing as Avgard patrolmen. They had just killed Bantin when they began to attack one of their own: a female human.

-One of the enemies standing between Searos and Salemar begins to sizzle as purple smoke rises from his wounds healing them. One of the robed figures near Geoffrei screams “I give myself to the chaos!” and transforms into a grotesque demon with shimmering scales and crossed eyes. The gargoyle and other begin to focus on attacking Bantin’s relative.

-We eventually dispatch all the enemies and loot the patrol guard’s shield, along with a lodestone and a tome of rituals.

-We learn that the lodestones are enchanted with a powerful locate person spell, but it only points to one person at a time. The key phrase to utilize this is repeated in the tome but the word is in primordial tongue and we cannot pronounce it correctly.

-After looting, we take a moment to honor the memory of Bantin by constructing a grave. Then head over to the side of the road where we left the refugees. We make it back to the area they had been left but there is no one to be seen. Following their tracks south-east we finally find them, where we discover Kreskil had said he’d go up the road to the north, but we didn’t see him. We rest up for the night, set up camp, awaiting the final stretch to Avgard.

-In the night Kilan wakes Salemar saying he heard some flapping of wings to the north, no farther than a few miles. We wake up the team and ask Kilan to protect everyone while we investigate, he is hesitant but agrees. Heading towards the sound it seems to quiet down until it eventually stops, instead we now hear the sound of cracking. We spot a humanoid character leaned up against a tree.

-Brekahn (Bantin’s daughter) sneaks up and grabs the guy. The man is balding, middle aged, and his eyes are completely white. Questioning him proves difficult as he appears obviously out of his mind, “the voices told me to come here” “there are many many voices”. He eventually invites us to follow him towards the voices. We follow him south-west moving quietly, when suddenly he stops abruptly and says “the voices… can’t decide…” then begins to walk north-west “we must go this way now”.

-We begin to hear more sounds of twigs snapping when another man emerged from the trees moving towards the same point as the man we’re following. Through the trees we begin to see a glow of white light being emitted from a floating wispy cloud. The men stop at the same time, we find more figures standing around the clearing with the mist.

-Investigating the light, it appears to have some arcane presence. Scord believes it could be used as an energy source. At the moment it appears to be in the process of being tapped or released. The branches and trees all around the clearing bend unnaturally away from the clearing. Searos grabs a rock and tosses it at the center of the light and it gets projected away. Salemar steps into the clearing and is buffeted by a strong wind. Tendrils emerge from the light and reach out towards him, exiting the circle the tendrils withdraw.

-Geoffrei and Brekahn try to grab and move one of the immobile humanoids, but struggle as if the man is rooted in place. The earth begins to creep over his feet, in a panic Brekahn plunges a dagger into the man, but he still doesn’t move. Salemar attacks the ground beneath the man, the dirt shakes, pulling the sword out the man eyes begin to shudder as he collapses twitching on the ground. Simultaneously there are resounding screams from the surrounding.

Journey To Avgard

At the end of the last session we just finished rescuing a bunch of slaves from a group of fire cultists. After escorting them safely to a halfling settlement, we agreed to accompany a handful of refugees to Avgard.

-Moving along a forest with 12 refugees along with a belligerent orc named Kreskil and a human named Kilan. We had just finished setting up camp and were now heading east/north-east towards Avgard.

-In the distance, Geoffrei spots a few trees in the distance which were covered in spider webs. We keep a safe distance to avoid attracting anything as we travel a bit further before setting up camp again for the night. Thankfully, the night passes uneventfully.

-We get everyone up and begin moving again. By mid morning Geoffrei hears some coughing in the distance. We move forward to investigate while Salemar remains with the refugees. Laying on the ground is a wounded human, his skin is glistening and he is coughing up a blue liquid. In between fits of coughing he warns us to stay away from the sickness, how Avgard’s refugee camps were forced out because of it. Bantin puts the man out of his misery.

-We return to the group and decide to move to Avgard anyway heading east towards the main road. Soon we meet a river flowing south, we tie a rope to either side and slowly move everyone across safely. We continue through the forest and finally reach the road where we begin to move north past the crossroad to Tharg-Calan, Hearthsrest and Avgard.

-Along the path Geoffrei becomes concerned that the sounds of the surrounding nature has become silent. We move off the path slightly to avoid any traps, while Searos scouts ahead. He finds someone on a horse waiting by the road, his tabard indicated he was from Avgard. After returning to the group and reporting his findings, Searos convinces Kreskil to stay with the refugees while we confront the guard.

-The guard seems to recognize us when we approach. He explains how we are needed to return to Avgard to help as a sickness is rampaging through the town. We explain how we have a few civilians to return to Avgard and we need to return to bring them along. The Doctor convinces the guard to lend him his tan colored horse.

-Searos remaining hidden this whole time the group returns to retrieve the refugees. When out of sight the Avgard patrolman begins to bolt it down the path towards Avgard. Surprised by this, Searos springs from his hiding spot, readies a prepared lasso, and calls out to the guard. The patrolman curses and takes out his sword and shield and begins to bang them together.

-Rustling from the surrounding bushes a robed figure holding an orb and a lodestone steps onto the path, the stone begins to glows and from a file of stones a gargoyle appears and attacks Searos. Two more green robed figures appear onto the road and seem focused down the path, while two leather armored humans with strange eyes emerge.

-The Avgard guard charges Bantin, knocks him down and follows through with his sword. Two humans with short swords charge the group. Meanwhile one of the lodestones held by the robed figures begin to glow as he motions “end it”, patches of loose sand begin to shift all along the road. The gargoyle grabs Searos and takes off carrying him into the air. All enemies surround Bantin and strike him down. A green robed figure yells “Take him down!!” as they continue to strike at him until he is slain. Afterward the lodestone holder seems satisfied as the stone’s glow fades shortly but begins anew. “What! No!”, he says as another one pulls up their lodestone, and points it towards one of the humans, “She lied! She is also of the Tarmikos line! She must die!!”

Eida (Searos' sister) - NOT the Cultist Leader!

At the end of the previous session, the party had just finished fighting a group of cultists led by two halfings, Mr. and Mrs. Hornwald. The room in which the battle took place now presented two possible options; a set of doors, along with the strange sigil that was carved at the back of the room by one of the cultists during the battle.

-Searos bangs the hilt of his short sword on the sigil and the wall behind it vanishes, revealing a path leading forward. However, before moving through the pathway hidden by the sigil, we decide first to examine what lie behind one of the doors. Moving through one of the doors the floor retains the same appearance of cooled magma, there is also the hissing of venting steam and scratching.

-As Geoffrei leads the way through this path it opens up into a large chamber, the path of cooled magma continues and ends at the other end of the room, splitting the chamber seemingly in two. On the left side of the path is a large pool of bubbling magma, to the right is a pit littered with the remains of cave lizards. Upon closer examination, some of the lizards were barely alive, their scales charred and cracked.

-We move back to the first room and shut the door behind us, moving towards the secret path. The heat fades and ground turns to rock, as this path begins to angle downwards and narrow slightly. There is a light up ahead and a series of groans echoes down the hall. Moving towards the light, the passage abruptly starts into a large chamber. On one side there is a pile of bodies, and an impression on the ground, where bones and bodies are fueled into a pyre in the center of the room. Opposite to the pile is a table scattered with papers. On the far side of this chamber there are 6 humanoid figures bound against the wall with chains, surrounding an alter with a body lying on it. A dark armored humanoid figure stands in front of the alter and next to the outline of a portal, behind a shimmering barrier. Carved in the surrounding walls are various runes and sigils. There is a another large purple demon standing near the pile of bodies.

-Examining the scene around the alter, it appears to be an empowerment ritual which would syphon the life of the 6 people on the wall and transfer their essence to the body on the alter. Tendrils of energy move out from the alter occasionally grazing one of the humanoids, stealing their essence. And to make things worse, Eida, Searos’ sister is among them!

-The black armored cultist welcomes the party, and invites us to stay and enjoy the festivities, when Geoffrei and him banter back and forth a little about Merrick sending us (as usual) as we slowly creep forward into the room. The purple demon turns towards us and snarls, displeased by our increasingly close proximity to the ritual. Moving closer, a slime encrusted demon appears beside Geoffrei, and the purple demon charges the group, firing off quills and clawing at Bantin.

-Nearing the pyre at the center of the room, tendrils lash out at Geoffrei and Salemar, dragging them towards the flames. Nearby two impish fire demons appear, fling themselves towards the Doctor and Scord and explode, covering them with a sticky residue. The imps essence is absorbed by the purple demon, restoring some of it’s energy. One of the prisoners on the far left of the ritual dies, as the black cultist spawns two more fire imps and slime demons.

-As another prisoner dies, the necessity to bring down the barrier and rescue the humanoids grow. Geoffrei slams into the barrier trying to knock it down but is repulsed and Salemar tries to pierce the shield with his blade, both efforts prove ineffective. Bantin sifts through the documents on the table, but finds he can only read one book, it’s about demons and forming pacts and the like. Searos moves next to the table and grabs 3 books at random for examination later. Salemar scratches some of the runes, which appears to weaken the barrier. The Doctor prays, some more runes vanish in a puff of smoke, he then sacred flames the barrier and it falls.

-The pyre begins moving towards the body on the alter after the barrier falls, the armored cultist now draws his weapon and grabs Salemar by the throat. Searos slips in behind and smashes the chains binding his sister, and also unlocks the shackles of a half-orc. The energy forming above the body on the alter becomes unstable, Scord controls the cultist, and makes him move into the mass of energy.

- After a bright flash of light as the energy explodes with the cultist standing in it. After the light fades, all that remains is his armor floating in the air, it begins to fall to the ground piece by piece and melts into a lump of steel. The portal doorway begins to shimmer, looking through we can see a series of lit torches and a large desk, standing on front of the portal on the other side are several other black figures resting on their swords.

Meet The Hornwalds

This session begins right as we finished slaying the last of the cultists, we now stand alone in the room with a massive flame hovering above the ground. Through the flame there stood a set of doors which one of the cultists had escaped through after giving warning of our arrival.

-Scord’s bow seems to be drawn towards the flame. Upon inspection the flame appears to bear some strange divine taint. While the origin is unknown, Scord believes it may be possible to draw out the corruption. Scord, aided by Salemar and The Doctor, introduces her bow to the flame. The flames make a clearing around the bow as it moves through, then begins spinning with increasing speed. The fire flickers orange as the flames rise to the ceiling, a bright white light is emitted blinding all of us momentarily. When the light fades, Scord is found passed out on the ground, the bow remains rotating in the now diminished flames. The flames eventually wink out leaving only a pile of ash. The bow bearing new runes and sigils bolstering it’s strength.

- The Doctor revives Scord, who did not seem to remember anything after placing the bow in the fire. Meanwhile the rest of the party had finished skimming over the cultist’ corpses for loot amassing a sizable stack of gold pieces, and two large ruby gems which were removed from the armor of the dragonborn cultists.

-We continue down the passage behind the dissipated fire, it begins with a steep rise but eventually levels off. At the end of the passage there is a thick red drape covering the exit of the tunnel. Geoffrei slices a hole in the drape unveiling a large carved out cavern. A wave of heat hits us as we step out into the cavern and notice that the floor is covered with cooled magma. Plumes of steam rise from a few fissures around the room, drifting above each fissure is a cluster of red balls of condensed flame. On the far side of the room there are two runic circles; one about 5 feet in diameter and the other 15 feet. The cavern has two sets of doors, one on each side.

-Standing above a fissure on either side of the circles is a halfling in a dark red robe, who Searos identified as Mr. and Mrs. Hornwald, a couple who strongly supported the seclusion of the halfling settlement with the surface.

-Geoffrei attempts to convince the two halflings that he is a fellow cultist, but they do not trust him. Surrounded by the red globes, the Hornwalds begin to glow red as the globules rotate around them. Two large cave lizards emerge from one of the doors on the left side of the cavern, the appeared multilated; their skin is cracked and burnt. Following behind the lizards is a cultist with a crossbow. Three seeping demons warp in from the circle of runes.

-At one point during the battle the lizard which The Doctor had captured breaks free from it’s leash and escapes down the tunnel we came from. The crossbow cultist makes his way to the back of the carvern where he spends some time carving a strange sigil on the wall knocking on the center. Steam burst from the fissures in the ground periodically which make the globules of flame move around frantically. Mr. and Mrs. Hornwald had much success in controlling the globules behavior to their advantage.

-Eventually the enemies are all dispatched. Scord takes a moment to examine the sigil inscribed at the rear of the cavern. She suspects that it is used to open an arcane lock, and is part of an arcane ward.

Leaping Lizzy

At the beginning of this session we were in the middle of a battle with some purple demons we encountered while exploring the underground tunnels near the cultist camp.

-After numerous wounds the large purple muscular demon collapses on the ground, soon after Geoffrei slays of the flying fire demons, and finally the seeping stench demon. We proceeded to examine the bodies, nothing of worth was recovered. Searos did not recognize the robed halfling that had fallen earlier in the battle.

-The smell of searing flesh rose from the chasm on the other side of the chamber, at the bottom was cooled magma smouldering. After examining the pillar that the giant purple demon was rolling before the battle, Bantin, Geoffrei and Salemar heave the pillar into the chasm making it easier to cross. We crossed over to the other side of the chasm, were there was a half-opened door.

-This door opened up into a passage way with lit torches alternating positions on the wall. Murmuring echoed down the passage ahead of us, but before reaching the source we came across a side passage with a shut door at the end.

-Taking the side passage the door opened up into a room with a few tables, many had alchemical implements on them. On one side of the room there was a collection of cages; a few of them had some cave lizards inside, snarling at our presence in the room. Another table had some books and scrolls and what appeared to be diaries. In the back of the room there were a collection of runes arranged in a circle, they appeared similar to the ones we witnessed from the Fire Hounds whose hide Geoffrei was currently wearing.

-Searos and The Doctor examine the caged lizards, while Bantin skims over the journals and diaries, Geoffrei picks up a random subset of the books, meanwhile Scord and Salemar examine the runes. The documents describe infusing creatures with elements. The circle of runes appear to have two layers; the first layer acts as a barrier while the inner circle starts a process which converts natural essences to the essences of the elemental plane of fire.

-Examining the tables with the alchemical supplies we discovered 3 containers storing colored liquids; Green, Blue, and Purple. The logs describe the liquids, saying that all but one had deadly effects if consumed. Over by the cages Searos ties a lasso as The Doctor tries to calm down the lizards in an attempt to tame one of them. However they grow aggressive, in a final attempt to capture one he opens the cage and the lizard bolts around the room, almost making it to the door before Geoffrei tackles it. Searos crafts a harness out of rope, and fastens it around the lizard. Before leaving The Doctor unleashes the rest of the lizards, they screech and bolt back through the door and head down the tunnel we had taken.

-We leave the room and continue down the path. The passage opens up into an alcove, a group of robed cultists kneel in front of stands with lit candels. The culists are facing towards the front of the room, and don’t seem to notice us approaching. At the front of the room is a figure in a red robe holding a sphere of fire above it’s head along with two dragonborn cultist standing in front of a massive flame. Soon the chanting stops as a cultist approaches the red figure and whispers to them. The red figure turns towards the crowd and speaks; “My bretheren, the sacrifices have brought themselves to us!”.

-At that moment the cultists turn towards us, unsheathing daggers hidden under their robes. Geoffrei bolts to the front of the room wrapping up the red robed figure and a dragonborn, Salemar rushes out to the open drawing fire. We focus on dispatching the groups of cultists, their lack of combat prowess allows us to manage despite the large unbalance in numbers. Eventually we slay the robed cultists, and work our way to the front of the room, where we slay the red robed cultist.

Happening Halflings

This session begins in the cultist mine, we has just finished dispatch a group of cultists at the bottom of the mine shaft, and were just about the continue further down the mine.

The path opened up into a large cavern, one large path continued through the center of the room where shouting and footsteps echoed down the tunnel at the end of the path. The right side of the path had be mined out, to the left of the path there is a 10 foot rising. On the platform, on the far side of the cavern 4 bow wielding figures stood behind a barricade. One of the figures was a knoll.

The bowman shout “We must hold them here!” as they fire off their arrows, Bantin and Geoffrei launch themselves onto the raised platform and engaged them. The knoll took out a long flail began whipping it around at Geoffrei and Bantin. Meanwhile Searos, Salemar and Scord assist with their ranged weaponry.

Whipping sounds can be heard from the tunnel and 4 cultist initiates burst from the far tunnel chanting “To the fire! To the fire! To the fire!” and surround Salemar and Searos. Following the initiates is a taskmaster flanked by 2 cultists bearing a sword and shield. The Doctor climbs onto the raised platform for safety as Scord blasts the initiates backwards, creating space for Salemar and Searos. Salemar rushes to the center of the group of cultists drawing their attention as Searos skirts the perimeter of the mob picking off the cultists. Up on the platform, Geoffrei and Bantin had just finished slaying the knoll and were mopping up the remaining archers.

The battle concluded shortly after, exhausted from the strain of combat Bantin crushes one of the spare energy crystals, oddly when he does so a faint scream was emitted from the fragments. We continue down the tunnel where we find two doors; one open and one closed. In one of the doors lies a dead halfling with a sword in his back. Searos recognizes the halfing as being someone from his village. A few jars are discovered and taken from a shelf in the room.

In the back corner of the room there is a curtain with a pulsing light and whirring coming from the other side. Behind the curtain we discover a pile of dead slave bodies, and a contraption with tubes and wiring hooked up to a table, strapped to the table is a halfing.

Salemar and Geoffrei smash the contraption to free the halfing, Searos explains that this halfing is named Perrin, one of his close friends growing up. After regaining consciousness Perrin suggests we lead the freed slaves through the tunnel he and a group of halfings took to get in here when they were leading an attack which failed.

Agreeing with this plan, we head back to the surface to gather the slaves. but before we do so we check behind the other door, this room appeared to be an emptied storage room, an oil lantern was discovered on the ground and taken by The Doctor. The slaves are waiting in the wooden building where we had left them when we arrive at the surface. We gather them together and lead them down the mine shaft. Perrin leads us down the tunnel towards the area where the secret tunnel is located. The tunnel in located at the bottom of a disposal site for the miners, we construct a pulley system to lower down the slaves, then squeeze through the tunnel.

Pushing Forward

This session begins at the cultist slave mine camp. We had just finished a tiring battle, and many of us were now in desperate need of rest. Around us are the three wooden buildings, one which contained slaves the cultists were leading to a shack which we assumed to be the mouth of a mine leading into one of the surrounding hills.

Searos and Geoffrei begin examining two of the wooden buildings, while the rest remained at the slave’s quarters to see to the surviving slaves. Geoffrei and Searos return with 7 crystals with a yellowish glow pulsing from within. We discovered that shattering the crystals would surround them in the yellow essence, restoring their energy. Distributing one crystal to each member, keeping one as a spare, those in need shattered their crystal and became invigorated by the essence. Gathered in the slave quarter’s examining the slaves, it appears that a very old gaunt looking halfling recognized Searos.

Searos discovered that it was an elder from where he was born and raised. The halfling explained the multiple-day long mining shifts taking place through shack at the other end of the camp. He explained the cultist’s continually fuelled and worshipped a pyre which lied somewhere inside the mine. Eager to put an end to the madness, and thanks to our new found energy we leave the slaves with a few weapons and tell them to remain out of danger while we proceed towards the shack.

Not to far into the tunnel, we came upon a mining shaft. There was a path that spiraled down the shaft, as well as a small pulley operated elevator which ran through the center. Operating the pulley brought up a platform with barrels of coal and mining tools. Unfortunately, the platform could only fit four people at once, also someone would have to stay behind to operate the lever, so we decided to take the pathway to descend down the shaft. On the way down, those in the front of the column stepped on a pressure plate, which released a series of poison darts. In addition to poisoning it’s victims the poison also seeped onto their clothes and glowed a bright neon green, which made them stand out in the darkness.

Another tunnel continued forward at the base of the shaft, at the end of the tunnel was a door. Next to the door, behind a few barrels, Geoffrei spots a hole large enough for the group to squeeze through. Searos slips ahead, where he signals to the rest of the group of a hostile presence at the end of the tunnel. Meeting up with the group, we devise a plan where Salemar would open the door and get the attention of the cultist’s. We would then burst from the tunnel flanking the enemies and suppressing the attacks directed at Salemar.

So we set ourselves up in the tunnel, listening in on Salemar who moved through the door. The cultist’s hesitated at first, Salemar claiming to be one of them, saying that there were enemies following close behind him. But the archer who escaped from the last battle saw through the farce and alarmed his allied of his ploy. But as they prepared their attacks we funnelled out of the tunnel and attacked. A large knoll stood near the tunnel with a long flail, on the other side of the room was a slavemaster with a whip ordering a group of slaves to strike at the invaders. The same cultist that escaped the previous battle rushed over to a door at the back of the chamber, opening it and shouting. Geoffrei hurried over and shut the door, blocking anyone from getting through.

The cultists were dispatched rather quickly their numbers much less than before, we did manage to avoid damaging the slaves, who without their master returned to mining. Geoffrei moved away from the door at one point, and the same cultist who escaped the previous battle slips through. The battle had now concluded, listening through the door at the back of the room some shouts and rustling could be heard, but there was no sign of reinforcements. Searos examined the slaves but found none he recognized, so with promises of sleep he finally manages to convince them to return to the surface and join up with the other used-to-be slaves.

Looting the bodies of the cultists does not turn up much, we leave everything except a whip the slavemaster was using, which was now possessed by The Doctor. The slaves dropped their tools and began towards the exit of the mine, while we prepared to continue forward.

Hey! I'm on your side!!

This session starts off where we last left off at the Cultist slave camp. Bantin, Scord and The Doctor pretending to be slaves, and Geoffrei a guard trying to catch them. They act out some convincing play fighting all while focusing their attacks on breaking down the door to the slave quarters. Searos, darted behind another of the wooden buildings where he turned to face the three dragonborn – one of the dragonborn being Salemar.

The acting continued a while longer, archers trained their bows towards the group by the door, but they could not get a clear shot without putting their supposed ally Geoffrei in danger. This lasted until one of the archers, who saw through the plot began shouting “They’re all working together you fools! Attack!”. The alarm resulted in loud rustling from the other two buildings, as cultists began pouring out of them.

A few more blows and the door to the slave quarters split open. Bantin hurried inside to find an elf and robed cultist. The robed cultist pulled out an orb and smashed it on the ground; from the shards a fiery winged demon burst into existence. Outside cultists quickly swarmed the front of the building, cutting off The Doctor from Geoffrei and Scord who were completely surrounded. Meanwhile Searos and Salemar dispatched one of the Dragonborn when they were also swarmed. The situation got worse, Searos escaped through teleporting onto the roof of the building, while Salemar went down in a blaze of glory. In the corner of his eye, he could see the cultist’s flaming weapons slash The Doctor to the ground, meanwhile a few cultists began to climb the roof.

Searos hurried to regroup with the rest of the group, Scord slipped out immediate danger into the slave quarters, where Bantin dueled a sabre wielding cultist. Looking through some gaps in the wood Scord spotted The Doctor and was able to bring him back into the fight. One cultist noticed his recovery and attempted to bring him down again, but Searos appeared behind him and cut him down, panting heavily Searos told The Doctor of Salemar condition, then quickly ran to aid Geoffrei. Geoffrei stood near the smashed door, swinging his halbred at the cultists and fire demon surrounding him.

Now conscious, The Doctor began moving along the perimeter of the battle, attempting to reach where Salemar had fallen. He finally found Salemar lying on the ground, but standing over him was another cultist. Without (barely any) means to dispatch the cultist, he managed to out manuver the cultist, bandaging Salemar quickly as he ran.

The number of cultists around Geoffrei and Searos began to thin, the fire demon still buffeting them with scalding flames. Bantin sliced the cultist in the building apart, but only shortly after the robed caster consumed most of his memories, and collapsed on the wood floor. Scord attacked the robed cultist, and in doing so his flesh burst open, another grotesque demon burst from underneath the skin and charged Scord – who had also just stabilized Bantin. Searos tossed a few shuriken from outside the building, blinding the demon, Scord and Bantin moved away from it silently as it slashed violently with it’s claws.

Eventually the last of the cultists had been slain, the fire demon surveyed the battlefield, pleased with the chaos that had taken place, it flew away. The battle had left the group with many casualties, which The Doctor now tied off with bandages to stop the bleeding, but he admits sadly that it would be difficult for some to continue, given their condition.

The Rescue

This session beings at the end of a battle with a group of bandits led by Jonn The Con right outside the entrance to the Tarnwood Ruins. The sounds of bandits dashing through the bushes moving south could still be heard as the surrounding lizardfolk who appeared in the distance dispatched the surrounding bandits, then melded back into the shadowy brush. Now, the only remaining bandit was the halfling Cass, who knelt in front of Salemar’s blade.

“We let you escape once, we won’t make that mistake again” Salemar cocked his arm back ready to thrust the blade into his throat. Cass replied with his usual psychotic banter but was cut off abruptly as the steel passed through his through and his sentence trailed off with a gargle. Blood spilled out, but did not act as expected. Instead of spilling out onto the ground it gathered in a sphere suspended in a above the body. Looking around we now notice that Jonn, and the other bandit’s too – all had a sphere which hovered above their remains, evaporating into the breeze shortly after forming.

Scord and The Doctor began their separate investigations, and concluded that the spheres did indeed have magic properties, but also a religious component – a demonic influence. The bodies that remained did not bear much treasure, besides Jon’s two axes: Pain and Pleasure. After looting the bodies the dark scaled dragon turned his attention to our group and approached. Eyes filled with hatred he overlooked the group, his gaze fell upon everyone except Salemar, who the dragon failed to acknowledge.

Instead, it addressed The Doctor, explaining that his actions today were not of his own but orders from the Oligars (sp?) – ancient dragons which understood the importance that we not fall today. Above a much larger dragon can be seen moving above the clouds, it does a small circle above the clearing where we stand and continues flying to the south. The black dragon begins to speak of the significance of the draconian stones, and how we need to complete the prophecies and unite the lesser races. Before departing after his larger master, he tells us that the battle as already begun to the north.

Alone now in the clearing we move the nearby bodies into the pit, a gift for the necromancer Agera. Then we continue towards the large Bandit camp the hobgoblins spoke of earlier, on the way we set up camp for the night. A few tremors could be felt from the ground, originating from Tharg-Calan and the direction the dragon’s departed. Continuing through the forest towards the camp in the morning, we come across a small clearing. A body with an axe stuck in it lie dead in the clearing. Searos is sent to investigate where he recovers a net with enchanted bells used to alert the caster.

Worried that the trap was set by the bandit’s, and that they now knew of our location, we spend some extra time circling around to the rear of the camp before getting any closer. Upon reaching the camp, we take hiding positions as Geoffrei walks into the camp, speaking the goblin password that the hobgoblins had also provided. But he received no response; the camp was vacant. In the large commander’s tent a body is discovered and pulled out from under a bed. Clutched in his hand was a scroll with strange markings. Scord determined the markings were directions to a location near the camp. So we head back out the front of the camp in the direction of the markings

Just as we leave the fortified walls of the bandit camp, there was some rustling coming from the bushes on either side of the path. Searos whips a shurken through one bush, after hearing a yelp of pain, a knoll bursts from the bushes and charges Searos. After incapacitating the knoll, we parley with a dragonborn who was hiding behind a tree waiting to charge. We convince his that was an error in attacking the knoll, and we learn that they are in search of bodies to fuel some ritualistic fire in honor of Scarm, noticing the emblem of flames they all bared on their armor.

We go along for a while, pretending that we will lead them to a pile of bodies to fuel the fire. While moving along the path, we give the signal and strike at them, catching one of the dragonborn and half-elves by surprise. The cultist’s group collapses in on us, the scouts that were in the woods to the side of the path charged in, their weapons glowing with fiery energy. The half-elves began chanting, which further increased the flames on their weapons. Two robed figures appear out from behind some trees and smash an orb on the ground. Erupting from the shards are two demonic creatures bathed in flames. Weakening the robed casters causes them to shed their mortal skin, unveiling another grotesque demon.

After defeating the cultists, we continue to follow the scrolls directions. The directions lead us to three large hills positioned in a triangle. There are some footprints leading down the valleys between the hills. A few buildings build of wood could be seen in the center of the triangle. Searos scouts ahead and returns with reports of more cultists, all bearing the same insignia, leading groups of mistreated slaves down a mine shaft leading into one the of hills.

Searos returns to hiding as Salemar (with the insignia scrawled on his armor) approaches two of the dragonborn cultists, holding The Doctor and Scord in his arms. Geoffrei following behind holding Bantin, we once again feign being part of their group; claiming to have brought more slaves. The story is believed by the dragonborn, but one of the half-elf archers begins to grow suspicious. Hoping to draw attention away from the group, Searos comes out of hiding and launches a shurken at the suspicious archer.

Salemar and the two dragonborn draw their weapons and chase Searos as he runs away. Meanwhile Scord, Bantin, and The Doctor run for the wooden building which houses the slaves, Geoffrei following behind pretending to try to catch them. Reaching the door of the building, it appears to be locked. Geoffrei catches up and pretends to strike at one of the pretend slaves; missing on purpose and striking the door. Moving out of the way, Bantin pretends to strike at Geoffrei using his spiked chains wrapped around his wrists to look like chains. Geoffrei ducks and the blow hits the door. Scord now lying on the ground after evading the attacks, kicks at the door as one of the archers, finally able to get a clear shot, shoots an arrow that lands inbetween her legs.

The door to the slaves quarters almost broken through, the sounds of more guards on the other side of the door can be heard. Meanwhile Searos and Salemar prepare to slay the two dragonborn who were lured away.

Jonn The Con

This session begins as we finally exited the Tarnwood Ruins back out at the bandit camp where we had first entered it. Stepping outside the tunnels, we found ourselves surrounded by archers. A muscular human by the name of Jonn, wielding two axes flanked by two hobgolins, approached the group and threatened Searos.

After the threat, Jonn and the two hobgoblins charged the group with deadly purpose, Jonn unleashing savage triple slash attacks. In between the flurrys, shouting from the archer’s captains could be heard as they focused on targets straying from the center of the party. The captain’s themselves contributed a painful volley onto the middle of the party.

Looking around and noticing a few barrels situated near the archers contained flammable material, Scord launches a fiery arrow which stuck in one of the barrels side, setting it aflame. She also took advantage of Jonn’s exceptional melee prowess through overwhelming him mentally – forcing his axes towards one of the kobolds. Geoffrei creates a cloud of grit and blood which shrouded the group from some of the arrow attacks. Meanwhile The Doctor focused a protective barrier of radiant light, in preparation of what appeared to be a terrible battle of attrition.

Searos fell early, being the primary focus of Jonn’s fury. He weaved nimbly through the group with ease pursuing his prey. Searos teleported seemingly out of harms way, when to his surprise two axes plunged into his chest. Searos was resuscitated only to fall once again shortly after. Bantin, too, collapsed – blood oozing from many puncture wounds.

They both recovered enough to get to their feet, where Bantin scurried back down the tunnel into the Tarnwood Ruins for quick shelter, Searos remained concealed behind the barrier of grit. Things were looking quite grim; a few of the surrounding bandit’s drew weapons and surrounded the group, barring any chance of escape.

Just before all hope was lost, some rustling was noticed, as some of the archers began to vanish. Soon after, dagger wielding lizardfolk emerged from the bushes to engage the bandit captains. Large wings flapped above as a black dragon swooped down only a few feet above us and began snapping at more of the archers – who were now mostly trying to flee.

Jonn ordered his bandits to stay as he made his escape. But we pursued him and took him down, as the life fled from his body he mumbled some cryptic words about his return, and we noticed he wore the same insignia as the army of goblin’s we fought before the pillars of light appeared.

The battle was now coming to a conclusion as a majority of the bandits vanished back into the forest. Now, our fate rests in the claws of a dragon.

Going In Circles

This session begins after we were ambushed by a group of elementals while exploring the tunnels beneath the Tarnwood Ruins. The ambush happened a large opening in the tunnels, one with a river cutting across, which we were making our way across to reach the elemental who kept their distance on the other side.

Everyone except Scord had made it to the other side of the river, Scord stood on the other side of the river, battling one of the gargoyles. The gargoyle bats at Scord furiously, leaving her unconscious on the cavern floor, seemingly alone. But from the other side the river The Doctor focuses his healing energy to stabilize her, as Bantin dashed across the river surface to her aid; crushing the gargoyle to dust. Now reunited we were able to make quick work on the remaining elementals.

After a quick rest, we decide to turn around a cross the river once again in order to proceed down the one unchecked path (left) in this room. This winds around for a while until is opens up into a large room with more blue fungus mushrooms illuminating part of the cavern, the other side has another passage going to the left. Heading down this path it curves to the left, as the air in the cavern begins to get warmer.

The path presents yet another branch; one path leading upward, and the option to continue straight. We decide to continue straight down the same path, when we begin to hear running water. Moving towards a greening light at the end of the tunnel leads to another large chamber, with seeming the same river as before. There is lots of vegetation in this room, and at the bottom of the cliff there are Kruthik holes. Several stalactites were placed across the river forming a dam which we used to cross to the other side of the chamber, where another path continued.

Moving down this tunnel the air begins to cool once again and it curves upwards, After 30 minutes or so it comes to another fork; we choose to go right. This path turns sharply, and before too long there is a large open pit, about a 30 foot gap, and at the bottom there are skeletons & sharp stalactites. Looking across, the tunnel appears to continue on the other side of the gap, but it ends abruptly with a wall of rock possibly from a cave in.

Bantin climbs down into the pit, examining the skeletons he determines two races of skeletons lie here; human and elvan. A metal spike used for scaling the rock walls was found lodged in the other side of the pit, but after being unable to remove it, Bantin returns to the rest of the group. We head back to the fork and head left this time. It goes straight and we start to smell a pungent odor, eventually the ground ends at the entrance to another chamber, which presents two other paths; right slopes up, left slopes down, a blue glow can be seen from the path sloping downward. We go down.

This path leads to the room with the pillar in the center, and where we fought the Kruthiks. We return and go down the other path that leads up, along the way there are more Kruthik tunnels but no sounds. Moving along the tunnel there is a crushed skeleton, as we pass the eyes begin to glow, it’s one of Agera’s minions. Taking the head with us as we move down the path further, it ends suddenly as the tunnel has collapsed. As we remove the rubble, we can head scraping sounds from the other side. A large ghast with a shovel shifts the stones from the other side. We watch as it continues to clear the path, then moves aside allowing us to continue.

This path leads to the room with the fallen column, skeletons and ghasts digging around the area. Soon the necromancer Agera appears from the doors to his chambers, shouting some nonsense about 5 jars in his possession that began glowing. Scord is sent to check out the jars, each jar carried a golen glow and contained a different material; sand, pearl, gold, bronze, and iron. Each jar has a sigil of a hammer on the bottom. Scord takes two jars; gold and iron, and returns to the group after signing a contract with the necromancer.

We depart for the chamber with the dwarven statues. Placing each jar in it’s appropriate statue, both statues begin to glow and the door shudders. Geoffrei pushed the door open, and a divine aura washes over us. Inside is a circular room with an old fountain in the center. There are 3 impressions in the fountain, each resembling to a piece of the relics recovered from these ruins. After placing the two pieces we possess into the fountain it begins to pour holy water, and a bright light erases the surrounding walls and replaces it with shifting images.

This images portray titans battling dragons, armies of lesser races fighting elementals. Towering pillars of fire and images of gods fighting the titans. 6 figures, stand around a swirling disk, as the images shift back to the battle, the disk appears, as the titans get close, shackles burst out from the disk and bind the primordials. The third impression on the fountain begins to glow red, The Doctor begins to focus and pray as the red light moves around her head. The walls illuminate another series of images, a sphere pierced with spears shatters, and flashing images o centered around different locations of circles of runic pillars; snow lake, swamp, keep, field, woods and sand.

The Doctor falls to his knees as the water in the fountain stops flowing. Exiting the circular room and removing the jars from the statues cause them to stop glowing, and the door to shut. We aim to return to the surface, backtracking our was back through the necromancer’s room, through the area with the furnaces, back through across the room with the gap and the room with the dwarven map. Back through the collapsed wall and up through the tunnel. Reaching the surface the camp looked much different, the tents and bedrolls were missing, and whatever parts were salvageable was now missing. The surroundings were much too quiet and caused much discomfort, as a burly figure holding two axes approaches us. He grins menacingly towards Searos as he says; “Ah Searos! I think it’s about time I had your hide!”, looking around we now notice 20 archers stand positioned around us.

UnBEARable Ambush

This session begins after we reached a dead end while wondering through the underground tunnels, we now stand in a room with only one path – the way we just came. Above there was a fissure in the ceiling where Searos climbed through and returned with much haste; an enraged bear clawed at us from the other side. Grasping the other end of the rope wrapped around the bear’s neck, Geoffrei slammed the bear into the rock, knocking it unconscious. Searos vanished once again through the crack.

After a time, Searos’ voice fills the empty cavern, calling out for everyone to come up so they may attack the bear together. But only Geoffrei answers the call, and scales the stone wall with ease. Standing above the creature they steady their weapons and strike simultaneously. More red blood trickles into the cavern through the crack as roars of rage echo down the cavern. In response to the sounds of combat above, Bantin boosts Salemar up the rope, then begins to climb behind him, shortly after Scord commences to climb.

Eventually everyone except the Doctor arrived at the top to witness the brutal mauling of their friend Searos, the massive furry figure stand towering over the mangled body. Bantin hurries over to grab Searos, and toss him down the crevice where The Doctor remained to catch him. Meanwhile Geoffrei makes great efforts to calm to bear, it moves towards the mouth of the cave and watches angrily as we made our way back down the crack into the cavern once again.

Back in the cavern exhaustion begins to set in and we set up camp for the night. Nothing too eventful passing during the night; at one point Scord sees what she believed to be a figure in the distance, but no other other signs presented themselves to cause concern. In the morning we moved back through the tunnel to the cavern with the river where we noticed a flickering light source.

Near the light a man lie on the ground injured with a torch perched on a rock. The Doctor patches up the man’s wounds as Salemar questions him, but he could gather little information from the man. After The Doctor had finished, the man stood up and shouted “NOW!!!” – soon after balls of hardened mud crash down upon us from the other side of the river. The man sheds his skin unveiling a watery form as he shifts away across the river.

Bantin moves across the river using his boots when launching itself from one of the stalactites a stone gargoyle slams into Bantin, knocking him upon the surface of the water. Geoffrei crosses the river to find 4 earth elementals drawing earth from the ground. A bulkier gargoyle comes from behind the group and attempts to gore Scord, eventually grabbing her and pulling her into the air above the river. But she manages to slide out of it’s grasp as she plunges into the river.

The Doctor, Searos, and Scord all attempt to swim across the river, but the current proves too difficult and pulls them under. Meanwhile, Bantin, Geoffrei and Salemar battle with the remaining elementals.

It's Kruthik Killing Time!

This session begins while the party is squeezed in a tunnel and had reached a dead end. At the dead end was two levers which Geoffrei had just pulled.

Shortly after pulling the levers we were surrounded by a loud rumbling as the tunnel shook. After roughly 10 minutes the vibrations stopped, nothing in the tunnel appeared changed. Moving back out the tunnel it began to level out and veer off the right, different from the direction we came down. This new section of the tunnel appeared to be made exactly the same, except a half-crushed kruthik lying in the path.

Continuing down the path, one section on the wall the stone is cracked and from that point a door could be seen at the end of the tunnel. The crack appeared as if something had pushed up against it from the other side. Heading over to the door; it was a stone slab, with no handle. Geoffrei leaned his weight against it and the door slid into the wall, opening the tunnel up into a T section.

The path to the right was another closed door, and to the left was another door but it was open. Investigating the side with the open door led to a room with an empty stone table, and two large dwarven statues with their hands cupped open standing on either side of a large steel reinforced door. At the base of each statue was an inscription, which Bantin translated; (right) “I drive men mad for the love of me. Easily beaten, but never free”, (left) “Ripped from my mother’s womb, Beaten and burned I become a bloodthirsty killer”. Each statue had a sepression with a raised hammer on it. Pondering a moment on the riddles the statues presented, we concluded that the left statue was referring to Iron, and the right statue was referring to Gold. Recalling the golden hammer we discovered from the Adela’s “junk” pile, we would now need to search for one made of iron in order to open the door, it seemed.

Having no way of opening the steel door we turned around and moved towards the closed door, it was unlocked and opened up into another tunnel, this one was much more cavernous and widened steadily as we continued. Moving forward through this tunnel we start to hear echoes, rumbling and clinking noises. Pausing for a moment to inverstigate the source of the sounds; we notice a distinct and familiar scratching sound.

Eventually the this path opened up into a fork, here that was a much higher ceiling, in the center was a rising which joined with the ceiling, dividing the path into two. There were a few ledges and risings and an faint blue light lit up the walls of the cavern. Examing the two paths it appeared that the left path began to rise, while the right decended further.

From here more distinct snarling and clinking sounds came from some holes in the walls. Kruthiks burst from some of the larger holes in the cavern, 4 total. One kruthiks begin to eat from a patch of glowing blue mushrooms when it’s chitin began to glow, enhancing the effects of the poison from it’s spikes. Two large worm like kruthiks burst from the ground blocking our path as we attempted to engage the kruthiks, A hive lord emerged from a hole in the center pillar, it’s entrance amplified the sounds of skittering as the kruthiks moved around aggresively. A short while after another worm kruthik burst from the wall and joined the fight.

The battle went on for quite some time until eventually the kruthiks froze, as if they were listening to something, and the began to flee. Unknown as to why they fled we took a short rest near the pillar and destroyed some of the mushrooms. After resting the sounds of skittering faded, and we head down the right path which led us further down. After 45 minutes of following the path it straightens and opens into a larger cavern. This cavern was flat and a stream of water ran across the center, at the other side there were two large tunnel openings on in either direction. We choose the right passage again, down this path there are no kruthik openings, and the path starts to curve off and continues into another small chamber with a crack in the upper wall where some light was shining through.

Searos climbed the wall with a boost and through the crack, after sometime there was loud roaring and Searos returns flying through the fissure holding a rope. The rope tightens just before he hits the floor, and then he starts to be slowly pulled up back through the fissure on the rope. But before he gets pulled back through the crack Geoffrei grabs the rope, and with Salemar and Bantin’s help they manager to pull the rope back down, snapping the rope in the process. Looking through the crack a large bear could be seen on the other side of the crack, unconscious.

Jars, Jars and More Jars

This session begins right after the conclusion of a battle in the room with the disected kruthiks in the uncovered ruins. The last of the Ghast’s had been slain, leaving one option; to chase after the necromancer that fled after sending his minions.

Before heading down the path the robed figure escaped through we spent a brief moment sifting through the piles of crushed bone and rotting flesh for valuables. Our searched yielded 2 opals, which appeared to have been used to channel the Ghasts. We then commenced our pursuit down the corridor.

The hallway bent to the left, where a dim torch light could be seen. Approaching the light, the hallway opened up into a large chamber that appeared to be at one time a meeting hall. Now, the walls were eroded and the floor had been excavated. Four massive columns prevent the roof from collapsing – one pillar lie across the room where it had fallen; the ceiling where the pillar once stood was cracked. Water dripped through the cracks onto the floor, where it gathered in the center of the room.

One torch stood near the entrance to the hall, it’s light barely reaching the other side of the chamber – where there were tipped over stone tables 20 feet up above the area that had been excavated. A ladder appeared to have been pulled up and placed on top of the rising. Behind the tables, there were two skeletal figures each holding a bow. Each corner in the room there were dwarved statues carved in the stone walls.

Looking over the massive room, a voice echoed from the shadows; “Theives! Get out! You’re not welcome here!”, it was the robed figured, he was standing on the rising on the other side of the room, behind one of the tables. Parleying with the man, he revealed this is where he lives. He appeared to have some strange obsession with jars, and was convinced we were there to steal them. When the man looks away for a moment during the conversation, Searos slips off to the side behind one of the pillars, and began to descend into the pit down a ladder. The necromancer began to become suspicous, and eventually Searos’ was heard and discovered by one of his skeleton minions.

Upon this discovery the man begins to chant and cackle as dark energy bursts from several bone piles in the pit. The bones began to shake, and assemble. More skeletons, ghasts, and a flaming skeleton emerge from the piles as we hurried down to engage them. Two Ghasts pincered Searos; clamped their foaming jaws onto and arm and left and open him up like a christmas cracker. They began to feast on his organs as he faded into unconsciousness. The Doctor and Scord focused their healing energies and rescued him from the jaws of death, literally. Bantin began to scale the wall where he was frozen in place by the burning skeleton, where volleys of arrows rained from the skeletons above.

The tables began to tip in our favor; Geoffrei scaled the rising with surprising ease and charged the necromancer over one of the tables, landing on the floor with a crunch. No longer protected by the wall be began to panic, and offered us a deal. He proposed to show us some passages we would likely be unable to find ourselves in exchange of leaving him and his collection of jars and other invaluables alone. We agree, but only on the condition that he remain bound for good measure.

The necromancer introduces himself as Agera, as he opens a set of doors on top of the rising. “Left is my things, to the right is junk. I just ask that you leave my things”. We split up to search the rooms. The room to the left contained a variety of jars, which Agera was eager to show off to the group. The other room was filled with useless garbage and junk, but which some effort, moving aside the garbage revealed a variety of magic treasures.

Agera then led us back to the room with the furnaces. He points out a few symbols, explained their meaning, then leaned into the furnace to push down on a pressure plate where the symbols indicated. The wall in the back of the furnace slid aside unveiling a small passage. Squeezing through the tunnel, it eventually leads to another empty furnace. Exiting the furnace led to a room with a table and eight bed frames. One door led to another room which had a few tables and bed frames, there was also a set of closed doors.

Searos attempts of unlock the door, but a dart shoots into his hand to thwart his attempt. Recovering from the wound, the group begins to move around the room in search of pressure plates. Three different plates were found in different locations. Pressing the plates, the door opens up into a closet of armor stands and axe stands, a few battle axes still remained. Checking the other room with the bed frames there was another fireplace with a pressure plate, which opened up into another tunnel, the tunnel was steep and led downward. The tunnel continues to descend for a while, until it ends abruptly.

Along the wall there are two switches. After some debate over which to pull, Geoffrei pulls down both, we now wait to see what happens.

An Undead Lead

At the end of last session we has just reentered the first bandit camp we came to and dug out the collapsed cavern. Entering the cavern we eventually came upon a room with some books and a map.

The only other door leading out of the room was also barred, taking the bar off and opening the door led to a corridor. The corridor opened up into a large room, all around the room were big stone tables, with wooden chairs. On one side of the room there were two fireplaces, the ashes inside were still smouldering. One table surrounded by chairs had a bunch of parchment scattered upon it. Much of the writing is similar to the phophecy writing given to Valthren in Winterhaven. In a pile of parchment there was a particular book that looked familiar; it was a book that Paradox was seen with. In the text the word “Bargainer” was underlined several times with questions in the margins; “Who is he?” “Is it a he?”. There was some more sketching on the page, one section listed a bunch of races we were familiar with. Everything was crossed out except Human and Half-elf which where circled.

The other tables have dead Kruthiks on them, chained down and dissected. On one table the chains were broken, near the table next to the wall there was a door that was half open. Opening a door was a room with a hole in the wall, in one corner of the room there was a pile of bones which were emitting a faint glow. Salemar attempted to purify the bones, and their glow dulled slightly, as Searos stuffed the bones in the hole and tossed the head into one of the fireplaces.

Looking around further in the first room, another door on the furthest side of the room swings open. Two rotting bodies spilled into the room, along with a robed figure who takes a quick look at us, then runs. Out from the fireplace skeletons begin to emerge from the flames, their bones remain encased in fire and begin to launch orbs of fire.

After heading some stirring in the room with the hole, Salemar braces the door. There is some battering on the other side but he manages to slam it shut and keep it closed. Eventually, the force builds up and breaks down the door; a larger somewhat muscular undead with foam dripping from it’s teeth came forth followed by a handful of skeletons. A strong stench surrounds the muscular skeletons, disorienting and slowing down foes near it.

Suddenly in the middle of battle, a wight appears behind Bantin and unleashed a loud shreik which dazes those nearby. It then proceeds to reach out towards him, reaching inside. Bantin becomes enraged by this and strikes uncontrolably at Salemar, but Salemar deflects the blow. The zombies grab onto Salemar and Geoffrei, while the fire skeleton’s fling orbs of fire at Scord and Searos, one orb misses and lands on the parchment, igniting the paper.

Searos unleashes a flurry of shuriken on a group of skeletons as Geoffrei unleashes a cloud of grit and blood providing cover for us. The skeletons are eventually dispatched, the parchment on the table now ashes, however we managed to recover the important parchment. Unfortunately the lead did little to explain what happened, but instead provided more questions.

Now we stand in the room with the dead Kruthiks all alone, some of us already heading towards to door to chase after the robed figure.

Skarm Unleashed

At the end of last session, the party had just finished dispatching the two cultists and fire lizards. The portal remained open; the image of a rock pathway frozen on the surface. There was no sign of the third cultist that had used it to escape. Though exhaustion from the repeated battles was beginning the set it in, this was clearly no time for pause. Something needed to stop the portal, and soon.

We entered the portal together. Inside was much like what Bantin and Searos described from their ventures, but even with that knowledge the incredible warmth and surrounding pink abyss of clouds invoked much discomfort. We pressed on, however, down the stone passage which stood ahead just as displayed on the portal surface.

The path eventually led to a large cavern, where inside the escaped cultist stood, along with two others, around another alter but this time a staff was suspended above it. Focusing on their ritual, they did not notice us until we bumped unexpectedly into a magical barrier upon our approach; causing one cultist to cast a quick glance on direction but did not stop chanting. As our eyes adjusted to the darkness of the cavern the shadows revealed the bodies of several other cultists. Each with a crooked dagger plunged in their chest, the blood streamed from each wound and gathered at the base of the alter where it was being drawn up towards the staff.

Geoffrei smashed his halbred against the barrier, and while at first nothing seemed to happen spider web cracks appeared and the dome collapsed. As the barrier fell a force sucked everyone inside, the chanting was much louder but still incomprehensible. The same strange force wormed it’s way into our minds, many of us couldn’t resist the force and found themselves no longer in control of their body; the lurched forward towards the alter. One of us even dropped to their knees.

Those that retained control tried to stop the cultists; who continued to chant louder and louder. Searos reached up to touch the staff, hoping that would interrupt the ritual. But the instant he touched it he stopped moving – frozen in place grasping the staff. Geoffrei stepped up and attacked the staff, chopping off the bottom of the shaft and releasing Searos. Blood started pouring out of the staff and finally the cultists stopped chanting. They started to panic and shout saying “You fools! Now we have no bargaining power!”, they started to tremble, and soon everyone started to do the same as the whole cavern began to shake. The ground beneath us started to boil, the cultists began eying their daggers as we made our escape.

The sounds of searing pain filled the air as we exited the cavern and entered a world of chaos: boulders of molten rock rained from above, making crossing the passage back difficult if not impossible. As if it had a mind of it’s own gouts of lava shot out as us, hardening and trapping whoever got hit. Everyone tried their best to move across the pathway as quickly as possible; moving ahead, and helping those that were struggling, but the heat became overwhelming and it drained our strength causing everyone to pass out. The last sight before we became unconscious was the outline of a strange demon pausing to look back at us before entering the portal.

We all awoke to find ourselves outside the portal, tied up and bound around the circle of stone pillars. We untied each other, and collected our things that were gathered in the center near the alter. Still feeling a little light headed everyone tried their best to analyze the situation. It didn’t make sense why we weren’t dead, but there were signs of a battle… Scord detected the magical remnants of one of Paradox’s spells. Looking among us, we hadn’t realized but Paradox was not longer with us, the kobold chief was missing as well.

We paused for a bit longer to shake off the last of the effects of what happened, the adrenaline of recent events faded. We needed to figure out what to do next, looking around we noticed the ground was seared and burnt to the west. The Doctor prayed a silent prayer to The Wandered, who gave us our options of travel. We decided to venture back to the very first bandit camp we came to – the one with the collapsed cavern. If we could find the final piece of the relic it would answer some of the questions we all had.

We made it to the camp fairly easily, the collapsed hole was still there. Everyone grabbed some tools and helped clearing out the hole. The search gave way to a set of carved stone steps that led further into the ground. The stairs led further down into a passageway, there were a few skeletons that lie in the opening of a hole on the wall and led into a chamber. We were just about the cross the chamber when Searos noticed a thread across the floor. He disarmed it and we moved through the door at the other side. The door led to another passage, which eventually split into three different paths, we chose to go into the path furthest to the left. At the end of this path was a solid rock door, there was no handle to open it from this side. We noticed a small hole in the wall a way back, Searos investigated it, and discovered it was a kind of mechanism for opening the door. After some time, a silent click could be heard and the door slid open.

This door led to another chamber which had another door at the other end, however there was a deep chasm in the center of the room preventing us from passing. But not for long, Bantin drew his bow and Searos tried a rope to it as he fired it at the door. The arrow stuck in the door, Geoffrei and Salemar held one end as we crossed one by one with some difficulty. Geoffrei crossed last, clearing most of the gap with a mighty leap, and then climbed the rest of the way.
This door wouldn’t open either; it felt like it was barred on the other side. Everyone stood to the side as Geoffrei rammed the door with his shoulder. The door burst open into what appeared to be a study. There were a few books on a shelf and a few papers on a desk. Geoffrei approached the shelf and took a random subset of books, the others took a quick look at them for a book that might help explain what was happening. Finally on the desk among the papers was a map. Now we all stood around the room studying and searching for any helpful clues.

The Last Portal?

Last time, the group had just finished closing another rift, and recovered the second relic. Experimenting with combining the two pieces, a brief flash of pink light appeared in the distance to the north-west. The light had to have some connection with the relics; and so the group headed in the direction which it appeared.

On the way to the light, we wondered upon a peculiar statue. It resembled a lizard, only it was much larger than any we had encountered, and it had wings. We also noticed the claws were missing on the left(?) talon. Salemar began to place one of the dragon statues in different nooks and crannies on the statue furiously… but nothing came of it. Next to the statue was an impression on the ground. Searos was called back from scouting ahead and ordered to dig at this location, but nothing was found.

No clear explanations were presented explaining the strange statue or the impression, so we continued our journey towards the light. Moving through to forest we eventually came upon a clearing, it was now fairly dark, but we could see in the middle of the clearing stood six pillars, which formed a circle. In each pillar a rune was carved which pulsed with red energy. In the center of the circle was a stone alter. Through the darkness we could also make out a portal on one side of the circle, and three robed cultists who stood around the altar.

Paradox positioned a sleep spell on the cultists; it failed to take effect, and the cultists were warned of our presence. One cultist ordered the other two to stay as it entered the portal. We began to advance on the circle, but it became difficult; the ground near the pillars began to rumble and shift, displacing it’s victims.

Upon approaching the circle, a more detailed view of the circle became possible. We noticed a body lying on the altar, with a passage carved in it’s skin, sphere of red was suspended above the body. And possibly the most disturbing was above the altar we could see a familiar statue; the lizard with wings – even it’s talon was missing it’s claws. Getting this close the statue began to glow red as it appeared to awaken. It did not move from it’s position, it stayed above the portal observing the battle below.

The statue emitted a piercing shriek. From off in the distance two winged lizards answered the call, and began to swoop down on our position. Searos disengages from battle to enter the portal, but returns shortly afterward unable to close the portal.

The cultists and the winged lizards are dispatched. All that remains is the body on the alter with the sphere and the portal. Exhausted, covered with soot and sweat, we now stand in front of the portal alone.

The Second Piece

This session began by concluding the conversation with the bandits whom we had just rescued. Their reports of lights to the north and failure to hear from scouts sent that way, along with Searos’ tale of a second rift caused conflict on what was to be our next path. While it was clear the Dwarves desperately needed our help against the horde that lie entrenched at their door step, the threat of another opened rift was a more present and nearer danger.

At our request the bandits led the group a little ways to the north. Their orders, it seems, were to create dig sites like we’ve already seen around this area in search for ruins, or more accurately; the relics inside. It was likely that if there was a second rift, the next camp would be where it would be located.

Moving through the forest Geoffrei picks up the scent of smoldering ash in the winds. A ways ahead and soon everyone could smell the same. At this point the bandits fall back, we would have to carry on alone. The smell continued to thicken, eventually it overwhelmed the senses; forcing many to cover their nose and mouth with an arm or a cloth.

The source of the smell was a small clearing; the ground was covered in ash, leading up to a small rising where upon the ground was still burning. Three molten rock elemental stood around another rift that lie at the base of the rising. A few fire lizards moved comfortably through the ash, above, one fire elemental was spreading the fire upon the rising.

It was obvious what had to be done, Bantin and Salemar charged the rock elementals. But they proved much hardier foes than expected, the ash covering the ground made moving around difficult. Geoffrei charged the fire elemental up top, while Paradox cast a putrid cloud which enveloped the lizards. Salemar managed to knock one of the rock elementals down a tunnel that appeared to have been dug out.

Once an opportunity presented itself, Bantin entered the rift in an attempt to close it from within. The same happened with the previous rift; the rest of the group was completely disconnected from anything that was happening inside the rift. The battle continued, until a short while afterwards the portal began to flicker and it’s borders caved in. After a small puff the rift vanished leaving a sweaty dusty Bantin on the ground.

The battle concluded itself shortly afterwards, and the group was now able to take a closer look at the clearing. It was clear that there was a camp here, at some time, but there was very little evidence of it now. There was a rope ladder that led down into a tunnel. Descending into the tunnel lowered yourself into a passage which had several bodies scattered around.

Upon one of the bodies a peculiar cloak was recovered; like the amulet found at the last camp it also had a shard of a cracked gem on it. What was even stranger, when the amulet and cloak were placed near each other they seemed to attract each other. Some of the group were curious to see what would happen if the two pieces were allowed to join each other, while others were worried; we had already witnessed the destruction which these relics were capable.

After some consideration, the group positioned themselves safely around the clearing while Salemar and Searos joined the two pieces. Upon being joined the two pieces did fuse together, they fit and completed each other almost with unnatural ease. Satisfied with the experiment, the two pieces were then separated. Now, standing among the ashes, the camp was strangely silent; a welcome contrast to the battle that has just concluded. Bantin lie exhausted on one of the singed bedrolls, while others discussed our next course of action.

Rifts and Things

This session begins at the start of a battle that had just begun as we arrived at the bandit camp that was emitting strange lights, which we now know originated from an elemental rift. Upon arriving at the camp, the bandits (primarily hobgoblin but some humans were also present) were in the middle of fighting a losing battle; a majority of their numbers were already strewn across the camp. On the side of the camp furthest from the rift, three molten rock elementals were locked in combat with the remaining bandits. Two other elementals leaked out onto either side of the rift, one noticed Searos, who was scouting at the time, hiding behind a tree near the camp and incinerated the area in a pillar of flame. By this time the rest of the group caught up and the decision was made to help out the bandits. If we were able to rescue them, hopefully we could discover the cause of the rift.

The group began to work on the closest fire elemental, the intensity of it’s heat was quite familiar; it was clear that these were identical to ones we fought before. Geoffrei weaved around the broken pieces of barricade that the wrathful winds had tossed around and engaged the other fire elemental. Paradox coordinated a skillful explosion around the bandits, and managed to knock over all three of the other elementals, buying the bandits a moment of time to join their shields together and form a shield wall. Behind the wall, a few bandit archers aimed a volley of arrows at the rock elementals, but the arrows bounced off their craggy exterior.

Now positioned a bit closer to the rift; Paradox took a moment to examine the energies in the portal. Amidst a cloud of pink, an image of a book on a pedestal; possibly a look into what lie on the other side of the portal? Paradox established judging by the movement of the different arcane energies in the rift that the book was indeed important. But to determine why he would need more time to study the rift.

By this time the first fire elemental had puffed out of existence, and the group advanced on the rock elementals which continued to strike at the bandits. As this happened, the rift became unstable and another fire elemental along with two lesser fire lizards were summoned from the rift and began to launch gouts of flame at Bantin and Salemar.

Fearful of what might happen if the rift continued to destabilize, it became clear that something needed to be done. The group decided that someone nimble would have to enter the rift, and stop it from within. Hoping to put an end to the chaos, Searos dashed away from the rock elemental he was fighting, who shot a fist of molten spikes in reaction to his escape. Searos ducked under the extended pillar of rock and fire, continued towards the rift and stopped a few feet from the entrance. At this moment he snatched a handful of rope, his hands were nervous and shook terribly, but the importance of his task allowed him the focus enough to tie a knot around himself. The rope gave him the illusion that he was now prepared for what he was about to do next… Searos closed his eyes, took a deep breath and entered the rift.

The battle went on for a few moments. The Doctor approached the entrance of the rift and examined it; she could see the pedestal and the book, and an image of Searos, as if he could reach forward and touch him. But he wasn’t moving. This caused him some worry. In response Paradox examined the portal shortly again, and noticed the energies moving between the book and the rift were no longer there. But in his opinion this did not signify that anyone on the other side was in peril.

Only a few moments later, the rift became more unstable than it had even been; the energies within the portal began to disappear and the strong wind began to die down. Borders of the rift started to move inward, shrinking in size. The rift now shrank rapidly until it blinked out of existence, and on the ground gasping for air lie Searos.

After making quick work of the remaining elementals, only two of the bandits survived. However, they did trust us enough to share their story on what happened; Their leader, Lortz, had been ordered to find some catacombs at this location. Having more time now to focus on the surrounding details of the camp we do notice a passage that leads into the earth, there are carved steps leading down, one would assume following the steps would lead you to that catacomb. The bandit continued, explaining how Lortz and a few others recovered an amulet from the catacombs, and how after returning to the surface the portal opened up right on top of Lortz killing him instantly. Examining the corpses scattered around the camp we did find Lortz’ remains, and with it the amulet described by the bandits. Whatever arcane energies had opened the portal, however, was now no longer present.

Searos then explained what happened inside the rift. He said that there was a passage above the book which read: “Skarm’s inferno shall engulf the mountain-folk, and never again will He suffer mortals to reside freely within the earth.” closing the book caused the rift to close, and that he also noticed that there was another platform with an alter and rift that he could not reach. So there was another rift open somewhere.

The bandits mentioned that they saw more strange lights in the sky to the north, and sent scouts to investigate but have not heard back from any of them yet.

Wait... another Dragon!? No way!!

After Salemar failed to convince the hobgoblin(?) bandits that we were aligned with
them, a volley of arrows rained upon the group from the surrounding forest by
surprise. Luckily, nearly all of the arrows failed to meet their targets.

What seemed to be the leader of the band emerged from the nearest tent, shouting
orders for the archers (which Geoffrei understood/translated) to close in on the
camp as he joined the ranks of two of the larger hobgoblins, spinning his flail.

Bantin split from the path, took to the forest where he found and slayed one of the
archers. Paradox also found a nice spot for his color spray among the 3 shield
wielding fighters ahead dazing and hindering their action, however, this did not
stop them from executing their orders; they formed a strong shieldwall and readied
their attacks, attempting to strike at anyone who came nearby.

Geoffrei charged around the shieldwall, behind a few tents, around to the rear of
the camp where Searos was battling with an archer that had spotted him. With
Geoffrei’s help, Searos was able to unleash a series of deadly slashes which brought
the archer down.

Soon after, a robed hobgoblin emerged came out of another tent, and came to arms
near the shieldwall. Motioning with his hand he drew Paradox into the grasp of the
warriors. With weapons ready they unleashed a brutal assault upon him, Paradox passed
out.

The warriors converged upon The Doctor when Scord brought Paradox back to his feat
and back into the fight, Salemar remained close by, doing his best to make sure they
would be safe.

Now conscious, Paradox unleashes multiple explosions around the camp, which knock
most of the hobgoblins to their knees. Geoffrei rejoins the group at the front of the
camp and takes revenge upon the robed bandit.

Searos along with another human follow shortly after Geoffrei, throwing a flurry of
daggers and shuriken and the remaining hobgoblins.

After the fight the group looted the camp and found a variety of valuables and
gold. A shipment of Iron bars that was sent from Tharg’Calan was reclaimed and
placed in our Bag of Holding. A collapsed cave/manhole was found where it appeared
the hobgoblins were digging previously, in search of something, evidently they did
not find what they were looking for.

The human which followed Searos is named Jarvis, from the way they speak with each
other they seem to know each other before the fight. Jarvis offers to take the group
to a camp of his near the river to the south, where he has a small stash of items to
offer to the group.

At Jarvis’ camp:

Arriving at the camp, Jarvis digs up a small chest which contains several pieces of
gold and a bow which he keeps for himself. Nothing too significant of note about the
camp, it appears to have seen little use in the past while. Upon setting up camp,
many of the adventurer’s begin to feel sick, and strangely, they all share the same
symptoms; sore throat and blue phlegm. A disease, for sure, as far as The Doctor
could tell, but none of which he has ever encountered. Paradox and Jarvis are the
only ones who seem to show no signs yet of any illness.

Geoffrei senses a storm is approaching. Despite having a fire pit available, no fire
is lit, the group spends the night just below the tree line near the river, in
anticipation of the rain that would be to come. Thunder and lightning makes things
difficult for those staying awake keeping watch.

During Salemar’s watch he is struck from behind by a bronze dagger, infused with
necrotic energies, but when he turns around he finds no one. Shortly after, the team
can hear a sheik from where Jarvis was sleeping; a lizardfolk stands over him,
Jarvis is covered with blood, but still alive.

The lizardfolk are very difficult to see in the dark and thus their numbers are
unknown, the group attempts to retaliate, however the desperate attacks find
nothing. More lizardfolk appear more in the distance, these two are emitting a very
distinct aura of mist which provide adequate cover for their lizard brethren.

Amidst the mayhem, another lizard emerges from the shadows and strikes a menacing
blow at the unconscious Doctor.

From the river, behind Scord, another black scaled dragon explodes from the river
surface and takes a chomp at Scord, but fails. The dragon is identical to the dragon
slain in the cave under the lake. The dragon appears to be consumed with rage at the
loss of it’s mate, it’s sorrow washes over the party, weaking everyone to it’s
inevitable fury.

Against such incredible odds, the group feels the only way to survive is through
some form of parley. Salemar offers his condolences to the dragon in hopes to soften
his madness, but his words do not reach the dragon as well as he’d hoped. The Doctor
as well tries to convince the dragon to halt it’s attack, but mention of not
skinning his mate reminds the Dragon of his loss, and his fury only increases.

MANWICH!

Upon reaching the surface, the group resolves to check some of the other rooms on the main level of the castle for the tomes they were supposed to find for Valthrun. After wandering around the castle for a bit, they discover the library, and are able to recover several tomes including those that Valthrun requested.

Seeing no other reason to stay in the castle, and with evening approaching, the group resolves to head back to town from the way they came. They make their way back through the corridors to the room where they first entered, and went back through the secret entrance. Once they emerged from the other side, they began preparations to cross the moat, wary of the insects that had attacked them here earlier. Fortunately the bugs do not seem to want to start a second round with the group, so the crossing of the moat is fairly uneventful, with no real difficulty encountered for any party member in the climbing of the walls, even for Paradox.

Reaching the far side, Geoffrei perceives that someone is watching them, and scans the surroundings for who this person may be. Upon close examination, he discovers a half-elf, who runs once their eyes meet. The group gives chase, running recklessly down the path that took them so much longer to climb earlier the same day. The half-elf attempts to lose the group by taking several shortcuts, such as running over a fallen tree suspended over a chasm, but Geoffrei, Bantin and Searos remain hot on his heels as Salemar and Paradox bumble about further behind. As the terrain begins to level out, Geoffrei finally manages to tackle the half-elf, and the three adept pursuers tie him up for questioning.

Upon interrogation, the half-elf is revealed to be a member of the Homeguard. In fact, it’s Marek, the fellow meeting with Ninaran before. He claims that he was sent to keep tabs on the groups that had headed off to the keep, since the Homeguard had found it suspicious for several groups to be heading there in the same short span of time. Marek is able to identify himself as a member of the Homeguard, quelling suspicion of him just being a liar. Despite some members of the group contemplating just killing him now since he seems like a shifty character, Salemar forces them to let him go as they have no proof of guilt in any of the happenings in the castle. Marek indicates that he will be reporting to his superiors about this altercation, and then heads East. The group finds this strange because Winterhaven is located South of them, but figure that either they’ve been duped or the Homeguard forced has mobilized from where it was in Winterhaven.

The group returns to Winterhaven soon after this, and begin the process of selling their hard-earned loot and talking to the important individuals in town. Estevan reports that the liquid the group gave to him before from the glacier can be used to purify any body of water with only a few drops, and gladly provides the group with several samples for their personal use. He also offers the group a new job guarding his caravan when it heads East in the days ahead. The group considers his offer, but inform him that they must consider their options because something is amiss in these lands.

The group returns the desired tomes to Valthrun, who indicates that things are “very bad” and also “not good”, among other foreboding messages. After this transaction is completed, the group leaves Valthrun to his studies and goes to meet the Lord of the town, and discuss their findings with him. When they arrive there, they find that Landon Colvar of the Homeguard is already discussing matters with him, and the group joins their meeting. When the group indicate that they met with Marek, Landon expresses disappointment that the group did not bring him with them, as he abandoned his post only days ago. Eventually Valthrun bursts into the room with more information on the prophecy, which indicates that the “event” may be close at hand. Colvar indicates that he intends to take his troops south to <some>, and that he would welcome the presence of the adventurers if they would wish to join him.

After retiring for the night to consider their options, the group resolves to head south with Colvar’s men, and let Estevan know that they cannot guard his caravan again at this time. Although somewhat disappointed, Estevan wishes the group the best in their travels, and the group hopes that they will see him again.

Just Passin' Through: A Tale of Tossed Books

Proceeding further into the ruins, the group finds themselves heading towards another large cavern, in which some kind of ritual is taking place. Six pillars have been placed at the far end of the room, which create a half-circle around a large sand-filled hourglass. Two tieflings seem to be performing the ritual, while various other members of their group are moving supplies around in large crates and barrels.

The adventurers approach the unsavoury characters and proclaim that they were sent through the castle by the same employers to ensure that no one would interfere with the ritual. The bluff seems to function well enough, until Salemar blunders by saying that they’ll just pass through the other way to continue on their watch, despite no other entrance to the cave being available. The realization that such an error has occured prompts Searos and Geoffrei to hurl various objects at the nearest enemy, starting combat.

The fight commences with a clashing of the melee forces of the two sides, while Paradox engages in a battle of wills with the two tiefling who maintain the barrier around the pillars preventing the entry of anyone else. With some clever positioning, Paradox is able to pull both of the tieflings into a tight area charged with electricity, which zaps them repeatedly. Meanwhile, the other enemies are being defeated one after the other, despite the assistance the tieflings occasionally offer them when they aren’t focusing on defeating Paradox.

Eventually the battle of the minds wearies the tieflings, while they bodies begin to fail them as well. Paradox succeeds in weakening them to the point that their barrier crumbles, allowing the rest of the group to access the area closest to the hourglass. As the last tiefling falls, the hourglass itself shatters, spilling sand all over the floor. The glowing symbols on the pillars also fade away as their controllers perish.

Investigating the room for treasure and whatnot, the group finds surprisingly little of value. However, they do find a portal rune-circle which is connected to unknown destinations. Deciding that it would be unwise to rest in a room where assailants could portal in at any time, Paradox quickly obtains rubbings of the pillars and the portal runes, and the group proceeds to exit the room.

Traveling back through the complex, they once again arrive at the room with the Tarmikos revenant. He seems to be fading, as if his life force is being siphoned away by some unseen agent. The group figures that this is being caused by the necromancer that is still lurking within the castle somewhere. The ghost leaves behind his sword, which Salemar takes up in his stead.

Proceeding upstairs, the group finds that the wounded man they left with the centipede bits has been carried away, but has left the centipede bits behind. The group assumes that the villagers have escaped successfully.

How to Defeat Inanimate Objects in 12 Easy Steps

Finding themselves with a choice of two rooms upon entering the door from the previous session, the group elects to go straight ahead instead of using the door to the right. Opening the door, they find upturned tables fashioned into crude barricades. Peering out from behind the barricades are a group of scared men, tattered and bruised from their encounters with the undead and other foes in the castles. The leader of the group asks if the adventurers mean to finish them off, but are delighted to discover that no, they are not on the menu.

After a brief exchange of information, the adventurers elect to aid the ragtag band of peasants back to the surface so that they may have a chance of making it back to town. The adventurers cover the way while the men go back the way they came, and then decide to investigate the yet unused doorway, knowing that by the process of elimination the necromancer must have gone this way. Traveling down a passageway, the group finds an offshoot tunnel, and decides to check it out. They eventually find a carving in the wall which can move, which seems to coincide with a message they found in the crypt room that failed to be mentioned in that session’s journal entry. After trying many different options, the group eventually determines that the answer is H Y M N. The door opens, revealing the Tarmikos treasury. The most memorable piece found is the Tarmikos family armor, which Bantin claims as his birthright and no one really cares enough to argue about it.

Heading back the way they came, the group comes to a larger chamber, in which they see a presumably undead man, perhaps a wraith or a gaunt or somesuch being clad in heavy armor with a darkly glowing longsword. A battle between the two forces seems imminent, as surely the being is a servant of the necromancer, but upon exclaiming that Bantin is a Tarmikos, the revenant stops its advance. It explains that it is the guardian of the Tarmikos estate, bound there for a very long time. It expresses relief in knowing that a Tarmikos yet lives, and that there is a hope that he will be relieved of his duty soon. The group asks the revenant several questions, but it is either unwilling or unable to assist with the requests. He allows the group to pass, which they do.

Further into the complex, the group discovers what appears to be prison cells. The group investigates the cells and finds the remains of a dragonborn prisoner, who had with him a journal and several red dragon statues. Upon touching one of the statues, Salemar is given a vision, and the statue stripes itself with silver. Finding no other treasure, the group continues through the prison and eventually comes to a large room featuring a large statute holding a sword and 2 dragon statues at the far end.

Entering the room commences combat between the group and the statues. Despite their immobile nature and inability to do anything if properly avoided, the group finds themselves locked in harrowing combat entirely of their own accord. Searos sets to work disabling the large statue’s spinning mechanisms, which Bantin runs forward and gets trapped behind a forcefield with some urns that begin spilling water into the confined space. Fortunately for him, Paradox lends him a hand in destroying the urns, as his magic can pass through the barrier unhindered. Meanwhile, Geoffrei charges the inanimate dragon statues and dines on a nonstop buffet of air-based force blasts. Searos joins him upon completing the deactivation of the larger statue, and the two spend a fairly long time smashing the dragon statues unnecessarily. Bantin eventually escapes from the urn’s trap, though it is a lot closer of a call than one would expect. Salemar wonders why the statues needed destroying at all, since they were entirely avoidable.

It's dangerous to sit alone! Take these.

Upon reaching the far side of the moat, the group decides that they should discuss how to best breach the castle. Deciding that using the front gate is just too easy, they begin searching for secret entrances because all good castles have them.

After searching for a bit, a secret entrance is found, and the group gathers to enter it. They proceed in single file through a corridor and emerge in a large room within the keep. Upon investigating the room, the group finds some fairly unimportant papers, but Bantin recognizes something far more important. His family coat of arms rests on the mantle, despite his supposedly humble origins!

Deciding that he owns the castle, Bantin pleads with the group to not “wreck up the place” but no one else really cares.

Deciding that the people and items they are looking for are not in this room in the castle, the group proceeds out to a hallway. Having to decide between going out to the courtyard or through to another room once in the hallway, the group elects to not go through the courtyard because bad things happen in wide open spaces. Proceeding to the other room, the group discovers a staircase that leads to the basement of the castle. Placed up against the side of the staircase is a wounded townsfolk, who has clearly suffered some terrible blows in combat.

Upon talking to the man, they learn that the others he came with have ventured below, and had claimed they would return for him once they retrieved the statues they were after. The group attempts to dress the man’s wounds, and does so with mixed success. Since he will not come with the group due to his injuries, the group decides to leave him with a torch and some centipede bits, because those will help ever so much. The man looks at the group as if they are crazy, and the group proceeds down below.

Traveling through corridors in the basement of the castle, the group discovers a chamber filled with sarcophagi, and discern through the records in the room that these men are the ancestors of the Tarmikos family. An investigation/attempted looting takes place, but nothing of real value is found. Salemar is wary of the skeletons and their tricksy ways, and thus prepares a solid punch for a skeleton as he checks it, because this is a good plan.

Suddenly the door at the far end of the room opens, and a hand beckons to the undead in the room, causing them to reanimate. The group finds themselves engaged with the fallen Tarmikos clan, who are equipped with their rusted old swords and warped bows. Finding no solution other than fighting, the group resolves to smash up all of Bantin’s relatives, and do so without much difficulty. The group then chases after the necromancer who must have summoned the skeletons, but do not find him on the other side of the door.

Details are Hazy and for Suckers

Resuming where the last session left off, the adventurers proceed to exit the cave, and climb back up the cliff despite a fair bit of acrobatics needed to secure certain slippery, discoordinated wizards. Stopping at the glacier, the group takes the time to collect some of the water from the glacier in a vial to take it back to town. Once some samples have been secured, the group continues back to town at a semi-leisurely pace.

Upon arriving in town, the group spreads out to once again make contact with the people of interest in Winterhaven. The glacier water samples are given to Estevan, while the fiery animal hide is given to the local leatherworker with some coin in the hopes of having him produce some exceptional hide armour out of it. The group then meets with Rond Kelfem, who pays them for their good work in clearing out the kobolds. The additional details of the encounters provided by the group trouble the guardsman.

Upon returning to Valthrun, he provides the group with very little information, but asks the group to collect some books that may be of some use for them from an old, abandoned castle to the North North-East of the town. The group acknowledges this request, wishing to at this time keep their options for adventuring open.

The group decides at this point, due to the lateness of the day, to retire to the inn for drinks and rests. The inn seems quieter than it was before, and many of the men that were gathered there previously are not there. The group kinda likes the quietness, overall.

The next day, the group contacts Ninaran, who is found about town with another Elf guy, who is clearly a totally nice and trustworthy dude, as he is a Homeguard, a soldier of Nerathia charged with the safety of its towns and cities. The party tells Ninaran of what they found in the Kobold cave, and then they did what was necessary to ease the suffering of the last of her companions. She is sad, but understanding, and offers no material reward for what the group went through.

The group wanders back into the tavern, where they are told that a group of clearly unskilled individuals has decided to head up to the castle on the hill to look for dragon statues that will fix all their problems. Deciding that this will most likely result in dead peasants, which isn’t good, the group decides they should assist these individuals by finding them, and then carrying back those that have not yet been blended, masticated or devoured whole.

With all plot hooks pointing to a single location {:p}, the group finds itself compelled to head to the castle. They brave muddy slopes and rainy weather, but manage to scale the mountain with surprisingly little difficulty. Upon reaching the castle, they find the drawbridge still drawn up, and have no clue how the villagers would have gotten inside. To cross, the group first decides to fire an arrow attached to a rope to the drawbridge. Bantin assaults the drawbridge so forcefully that he manages to puncture the intensely thick and solid wood, and everyone is very impressed.

Unfortunately, the noise of the group attracts the attention of various insects living in and around the moat. The party only notices the threat once several members have descended into the shallow water of the moat, seperating the party somewhat. Geoffrei and Bantin go toe to toe with some large fire beetles and swarms of smaller chittering bugs, while the rest of the group tosses various weapons and spells at some acid lobbing beetles on the other side of the moat. Once most of the bugs have been dispatched, the rest strangely retreat back down their holes where the party cannot follow…well except for Searos but like hell he’s gonna cram himself down a hole to finish off a giant beetle.

At this point the group begins the process of crossing the moat once again, and manages to complete the endeavor without further interruptions of a chitinous nature. Finding themselves on the other side of the moat, the group begins discussing how to best breach the castle.

Jaw-Dropping Excitement

The group continues on their way, having finished their rest in the room off to the side of the corridor. Paradox recovered some papers for deciphering from the room, but aside from that not much else was present.

Following the corridor, the group finds themselves approaching a large, open, subterranean cavern filled with stalactites. The group can also make out some forms in the cavern, and attempt to approach stealthily, which fails. This leads to a large kobold with a steel jaw and a pale bluish complexion shouting at them, and a battle commences.

The group approaches the large kobold, intent on massacring him, when their efforts are endangered by a pair of casterly kobolds who share the same affinity for frost magic, as hinted by their similarly bluish complexions. They bombard the party with large gales of chilling wind, and icicles are hurled around, injuring the party. Thus, the party separates to deal with these threats, when suddenly a second kobold who excels in the sneaking arts jumps in behind those fighting the kobold leader and catch them in a “double-flank sandwich”. Despite some close calls, the party manages to defeat the kobold leader and his allies, only to have them erupt into frost elementals once their mortal shell has been sundered. The party manages to defeat these as well, and then search for spoils of war without having ever bothered dealing with the stalactites.

Searos finds a frost shortsword on the sneaky kobold, which he decides to use as his new weapon. Salemar collects the kobolds’ standard to bring back to town, while Bantin decides to take the steel jaw of the kobold’s leader, intent on using it to scare other kobolds or sell for scrap.

The group then notices that there is a hidden room to the side of the large cavern, and inside they find a dying comrade of Ninaran, who tells the party of the wicked dealings the kobolds had, and urges them to finish him off. After an attempt at healing him fails, the party does so. They then grab treasure, and leave the caves and head back towards town to inform their Winterhaven allies of what they know about the plot that seems to be unfolding.

Caves and Pits...Featuring a Rock

An investigation of the battle site post-battle reveals several items of interest. The orb that was being used as a focal point for the portal is stabilized, and Paradox takes it as his new implement as it has useful magical properties. One of the fiery hound’s hides is also recoverable, and is taken by Geoffrei in hopes that it can be crafted in town

The party decides that the cave must be investigated, and make preparations to lower themselves down to the cave below. It is decided that the most awesome way to accomplish this is to all rappel down individual ropes at once, instead of employing a safer “one at a time with support” strategy. Paradox finds his newly acquired orb to be more cumbersome than expected, and falls down the final stretch of rope. This will be the first of many falls, the group suspects.

Upon entering the dark cave, the adventurers are forced to walk single-file, as that is all the cave can accomodate. They proceed by light of Paradox’s spell applied to a rock in Geoffrei’s hand, coupled with the shifter’s keen eyes and exceptional perception. The group eventually progresses far enough to hear talking in a room at the end of the tunnel, and a decision is made to charge into the room, causing the commencement of this week’s encounter.

The group fights an assortment of kobolds, who are positioned on top of a 10 foot wall at the far end of the room, with 2 rows of caskets and a pit of green goo between the two groups. The kobolds clearly have the advantage, and the group is able to identify the source of the commotion as being an argument between the kobolds as to who gets to hold a large rock attached to the roof by a length of rope.

The fight goes fairly well, with the heros managing to vault over the walls with relative ease, though no epic pole-vaulting attack maneuvers manage to succeed. The only real danger appears when a pair of ferocious animals that were behind the doors that were left closed by the party are alerted to its presence by a sun rod dropped near them. The beasts are all slain eventually though, and the group collects some of the goo from the pit in a vial for later use, as well as some cruddy weapons for selling later.

The group continues down the corridor and take refuge in a room off to the side to take a rest, ending their adventure here for the day.

Clearings and Rifts

The party arrives in Winterhaven. After seeing Estevan properly established in the market square, trips are paid to the local blacksmith, leatherworker, tavern, and the militia barracks.

While at the inn, the party overhears a conversation between locals about a treasure hunter, Douven Stahl, who has ventured into an old keep to the north, purportedly to secure some ancient Nerathian artifacts that will protect the town.

Searos investigates the home of the town sage, Valthrun, who hasn’t been seen in a few days. A light is on in the back room, but the doors are locked. He fails to pick the lock on the front door and returns to the inn.

The head of the local militia, Rond Kelfem, meets with the party. He enlists the party’s help in ridding the town of their kobold problem, since they handled the attack on the wagon well. He has never heard of a cave to the north, and seems puzzled to hear of one.

Bantin consoles a female elven ranger, Ninaran, who has recently lost her companions in a raid against this same kobold tribe. She spoke briefly of fiery death, and warns him to stay out of clearings.

That night the party returns to Valthrun the Sage’s home. Searos enters the back door and finds the old man frantically writing in his library, poring over a multitude of books. The party enters, surprising the sage, but after he quickly takes stock of the group he begins hastily explaining how the work and research he has done points toward dire events happening. When he hears of the kobold cave, and the warnings they heard from the kobolds and Ninaran, he grows even more concerned and presses the party harder to go to this cave.

The following morning the party leaves, retracing their steps to where they fought the kobolds. They turn north and head in the direction the kobold indicated they would find a cave. Along the way they start to notice large clearings in the forest and, heeding Ninaran’s advice, stick to the woods. Geoffrei hears the sound of an injured animal, but investigating the noise leads them to one of the clearings. It has been scorched and blasted clear, and the bodies of a number of wolves lie about the area. One badly burned and injured wolf clings to life at the edge of the clearing. Geoffrei tries to comfort it, but in the end is forced to end its misery.

Moving farther north, the party comes across a cliffside. The edge of the cliff has been cleared of trees and is home to a magma plain similar to the clearings, along with a large chunk of ice that seems to have sprouted from the earth. A cultist stands at an altar before a large rift in the air, connecting this plane to the elemental planes of fire and water. Battle is swiftly joined between the party and the cultist, who is joined by a number of fiery elemental creatures, including some captured and corrupted wolves that have been infused with the essence of fire. In the end, the party stands triumphant, and notice that there is a hole in the cliff face below them leading down into darkness.

Searos Gladdenstone and Geoffrei were just passing through, always on the move, and still concerned over the disturbing event they both bore witness to

A day out on the road the party meets a band of bounty hunters searching for a half-orc thief and murderer traveling the opposite direction. They party tells them they have seen no signs of him.

On the third day, the party detects an ambush just before it can be sprung. The wagon is left behind in some cover while the party engages a band of kobolds. Shortly before dispatching the last of them, the wagon is lit on fire and Estevan’s children panic and flee. The party is able to save the wagon from serious damage and recover Estevan’s children.

A kobold prisoner is interrogated and tells of a cave to the north which the kobolds use a base, inhabited by “hot burnies” and “wet coldies”. The party is eager to visit this cave upon the completion of their contract with Estevan. After dispensing this information, while the rest of the party is arguing what they should do with him, the kobold is summarily executed by Searos.

During the night a pack of wolves feeds on the slain kobolds while the party is camped some distance away. The following day, around mid-morning, they arrive at Winterhaven.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.